Global tropical primary forest cover continued to decline unabated in 2022
Context:
- Recent statistics given by the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch project that by 2022, tropical regions will have lost 11 football fields’ worth of forest cover per minute, or 4.1 million hectares.
Primary forests:
- Old-growth, naturally occurring forests that have not recently undergone modification make up primary woods.
- They frequently retain more carbon than ordinary woods and are abundant in biodiversity.
- In nature, the loss of main forests is almost usually permanent; even if new vegetation sprouts, secondary forests are unlikely to share primary forests’ levels of biodiversity or capacity to store carbon.
- Rainforests are also referred to as “Primary Forests” because they are free from taint by human activity and have virgin, unadulterated vegetation.
- As the population of the country grows, there is a corresponding increase in the area used for agriculture and an invasion of main forestland.
- Primary woods are burned for short-term farming, and then they are left fallow to allow soil nutrients to restock.
Distribution:
- Tropical rain forests can be found in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico, and a number of Pacific Islands with a latitude of 28 degrees north or south of the equator.
- They comprise around 6-7% of the surface of the planet and contain half of the world’s biodiversity.
- Brazil (South America), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa), and Indonesia are home to the world’s largest rainforests.
- The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon in South America, spans a region that is roughly two-thirds the size of the continental United States.
Global Forest Watch’s findings:
- According to Global Forest Watch, India lost 43.9 thousand hectares of primary humid forest between 2021 and 2022. This accounts for 17% of the nation’s overall decline in tree cover over that time.
- In 2022, there was a 10% reduction in the global loss of tree cover. This includes uncultivated, secondary, and wild woods.
- Global Forest Watch claims that the decrease in forest losses owing to fires since 2021, which has decreased by 28%, is the cause of this fall. In 2022, losses from non-fire sources increased by little under 1%.
- Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have the largest tropical forest coverage, both reported resource losses in 2022.
Suggestions:
- We must reduce global deforestation by at least 10% yearly in order to meet the 2030 goal. Nevertheless, the global deforestation rate in 2022 was 3.1% lower than it was during the reference period of 2018–2020. The world is currently headed away from achieving the 2030 goal.
- To rehabilitate 350 mha of forests globally by 2030, the world must increase its tree cover by 22 mha annually between 2021 and 2030.
- The Amazon rainforest will be more adaptable and its threatened regions will be protected if deforestation is reduced.
- In order to ameliorate the situation, the current Brazilian government is urged to implement a zero-deforestation strategy.
- enhancing student and youth awareness of the relevance of trees to the Amazon environment and the role that they play in the ecosystem of the Amazon.
- Limiting global greenhouse gas emissions is additionally essential for their protection.
- Corporate entities are required to follow by laws governing corporate responsibility, which forbid them from engaging in actions that harm Amazon.
Conclusion:
- Designing a conservation strategy based on the notion of sustainable use and development of rainforests, rather than on too idealistic solutions, is the best method to save tropical forests.
