The planet has further lost the equivalent of 10 football fields per minute in virgin tropical forest in 2023, at levels that remain high despite an improvement in Brazil and Colombia. Last year, tropical regions lost 3.7 million hectares of primary forest, an area almost the size of Bhutan, according to data released Thursday by the World Resources Institute (WRI) with the University of Maryland.
This figure includes losses for various reasons: deforestation for agriculture, logging, accidental destruction, fires. It is certainly down 9% compared to the previous year, with a clear improvement in Brazil and Colombia, partly offset by increases in other countries.
But these losses remain at a “stubbornly high” level, almost identical to those of 2019 and 2021, deplore the authors. The report focuses on tropical forests, which are more prone to voluntary deforestation and very important from the point of view of biodiversity and for their capacity to absorb carbon.
“Two steps forward…”
“The world took two steps forward and two steps back last year,” commented WRI’s Mikaela Weisse during a press presentation. On the good news side, the reduction of primary forest in Brazil fell by 36% last year, to its lowest level since 2015, benefiting from the protection measures put in place by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to the first year of his new mandate.
The trend, however, hides disparities in the country, with a very clear improvement in the Amazon but a deterioration in the Cerrado, the epicenter of national agriculture.
In Colombia, the reduction in forest cover fell by 49%, a trend that follows the summer 2022 election of Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in the country’s history, who has since been trying to negotiate peace with the different armed groups operating in the provinces. Forest conservation is explicitly among the objectives of these talks, notes the WRI.
The “impressive” improvements in these two countries “underscore the importance of leadership and policy changes when it comes to forest protection,” notes Mikaela Weisse.
“We must learn from countries that are successfully slowing deforestation or else we will continue to rapidly lose one of our most effective tools to combat climate change, protect biodiversity and support the health and livelihoods of millions of people “, she warns.
This progress was partly offset by a clear deterioration in the trend in Bolivia, Laos and Nicaragua. In Bolivia, the destruction of the forest was fueled by fires and agricultural production, particularly soya, mainly intended for animal feed for the meat industry. Agriculture also played a central role in Laos, under pressure from demand from China, as in Nicaragua.
“Short term gains”
Outside the tropics, Canada stood out for the most devastating fire season on record, which increased the area of forest destroyed in this country fivefold last year compared to 2022. In total, despite progress in some countries, the world is not on the right trajectory to meet the commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, when more than 140 leaders committed to stopping deforestation by 2030.
“Are we on track? In short: no,” summarized Rod Taylor of WRI, noting a significant deviation from the necessary trajectory six years from the deadline. “Deforestation in 2023 was almost 2 million hectares above the level necessary to be on the right path,” he emphasizes.
“The global economy must increase the value of preserving forests compared to the short-term gains brought by deforestation which makes way for farms, mines or new roads,” he argues.