Thread by @weatherindia

Human Activities Obliterated Two-Third of #Earth’s Tropical Rainforests Between 2002-2019: Report

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(📸: IANS)

Human activities have contributed to the massive destruction of nearly two-thirds of the world’s original #TropicalRainforests in the last two decades, a new study has found.

#Environment

The analysis has revealed logging and land conversion for various agricultural practices as the two primary factors behind the wipeout of these forests, which serve as the largest reservoirs of carbon and effectively mitigate #GlobalWarming.

#TropicalRainforests #Environment

The analysis, conducted by a non-profit organisation called Rainforest Foundation Norway, states that logging and land conversion has wiped out approximately 34% of the world’s original old-growth #TropicalRainforests, while around 30% of them were found to be degraded.

Altogether, these two factors have exposed #TropicalRainforests to threats like fire and future destruction through #GlobalWarming.

Nearly half of the analysed destruction since 2002 has been focused in the Amazon region of South America and other adjoining #rainforests. The Amazon was followed by Southeast Asian islands in Indonesia and the Congo River basin in Central Africa.

#Environment

While the Southeast Asian islands witnessed destruction due to palm oil plantations, the Central African #rainforests were charred for traditional and commercial farming and logging.

#Environment

Even the rate of loss that occurred in 2019 was almost equivalent to the annual destruction rate over the last 20 years, and it is possible that it spiked even further in 2020—the year of #COVID19-induced lockdowns—as per a report by the World Resources Institute.

#Environment

In fact, as per #Brazil’s national space research agency, the #AmazonRainforest recorded the highest deforestation in 2020, where the cover was wiped out from 2.7 million acres of land.

#Environment

Overall, the report highlights the grim picture of how the #TropicalRainforests are prone to human-induced threats. Moreover, with the #ClimateCrisis at an all-time high, it becomes ever-more crucial to safeguard the Earth’s most natural buffers against the #GlobalWarming risk.