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Amazon fires drive unprecedented global forest loss in 2024, report says

Amazon fires drive unprecedented global forest loss in 2024, report says

According to a Wednesday report, massive fires caused by climate change will cause global forest losses to break records in 2024.

The loss of tropical forests reached 6.7m hectares (16.6m acres), a spike of 80% compared to the year 2023. This is an area about the size of Panama. Brazil, which will host the next climate summit in November struggled to control fires in Amazon during the worst ever drought recorded in rainforest. Wildfires also devastated a number of countries including Bolivia and Canada.

The World Resources Institute's annual report and the University of Maryland's study showed for the first time that fires were the primary cause of tropical forest losses, a sad milestone in a humid ecosystem which isn't supposed to burn.

Matthew Hansen, co-director of the University of Maryland lab that compiled and analysed the data, said: "The signals are particularly scary." "The fear is the climate signal will overtake our capability to respond effectively."

The report stated that Latin America was particularly affected, with the Amazon biome experiencing its highest loss of primary forests since 2016.

Brazil, the country with the largest tropical forest share in the world, has lost the most land of any other country, 2.8 million hectares. This was a reverse of the progress that had been made when Luiz inacio Lula da So took office, promising to protect the largest rainforest on earth.

"This was unprecedented. We have to adapt our policies to the new reality," said Andre Lima who oversees the deforestation-control policies of Brazil's Ministry of Environment. He added that fires, which were never the top cause of forest losses, are now a priority for the Brazilian government.

Bolivia has overtaken the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite only having half as much forest as that African nation. That country also experienced a significant increase in forest losses last year.

Bolivia's forest loss surged by 200% in 2024, with a drought, wildfires and a government-incentivized agricultural expansion as the leading causes. The report also noted similar trends across Latin America in Mexico, Peru Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Deforestation rates were also increased by conflicts in Colombia and Democratic Republic of Congo, where armed groups depleted natural resources.

Wildfires in Canada and Russia, both of which have a population of over 12 million acres, caused a record loss of trees in 2024.

Southeast Asia defied the global trend, with Malaysia, Laos and Indonesia posting double-digit reductions in primary forests loss. This was due to the domestic conservation policies, coupled with the efforts of communities and the private sectors, which continued to effectively control fires and agricultural growth.

Charagua Iyambae Indigenous Territory in southern Bolivia was another outlier. It was able, through land-use policy and early warning systems, to prevent the record fires that ravaged the country.

Rod Taylor, global director for forests for the WRI, stated that he hopes to see progress made by countries in the introduction of better funding mechanisms for conservation as they descend on the Amazonian town of Belem, for the next Climate Summit.

He said that "at the moment, there's more money in cutting down forests than keeping them up." (Reporting and editing by Manuela Andréoni, Alexander Villegas)

(source: Reuters)