Last
year, huge spaces of tropical rainforest were burned or chopped down for
agricultural crops, with Brazil leading the way, according to researchers, who
warn that climate change is making it more difficult to restore the losses.

According
to annual studies by Global Forest Watch, the World Resources Institute, and
the University of Maryland, the tropics lost 11.1 million hectares (27.5
million acres) of tree cover in 2021, with 3.75 million hectares of that
belonging to aged primary forests.

“That’s
10 football pitches per minute. And that goes on for a year.” said
Rod Taylor who leads the WRI’s Forests Program.

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According
to researchers, the loss of tropical primary forest in 2021 resulted in a
release of 2.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is
equal to India‘s yearly fossil fuel emissions.

In
Brazil, 1.5 million hectares of tropical primary forest were cut down or burned
in 2021, accounting for about 40% of total tropical primary forest loss.
Following that, the Democratic Republic of the Congo lost about 500,000
hectares of forest, while Bolivia’s forest clearance reached nearly 300,000
hectares, the greatest amount since records began in 2001.

While
the current data revealed a minor decrease in the pace of primary tropical
forest loss in 2021, down 11% from the previous year, researchers noted the
rates are still unhealthy.

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Researchers
warned of a possible “feedback loop” in which more fires result in
increased carbon dioxide emissions, which raises temperatures and therefore
raises fire risk.

The
report comes after 141 world leaders pledged to “halt and reverse forest
loss by 2030” at the COP climate summit in Glasgow last year.

Because
the majority of the 2021 forest loss occurred prior to the agreement, WRI
believes the most recent numbers can be used as a “baseline” for
evaluating its efficacy. To reach those targets, the researchers added, there
would have to be a steady and substantial reduction in the pace of primary
forest loss every year for the rest of the decade.

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Frances
Seymour of the World Resources Institute said, “Climate change itself is
making it harder to maintain the forest that we still have.”

According
to new research, the Amazon rainforest may be closer than previously thought to
reaching a “tipping point” where it will irreversibly shift to
savannah, potentially releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the sky. Brazil,
which houses around one-third of the world’s remaining primary tropical
rainforest, has seen its forest depletion rise rapidly in recent years.

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Non-fire
losses increased by 9% last year compared to 2020, according to WRI, and are
often tied to land clearing for agriculture.

Meanwhile,
crucial states in the western Brazilian Amazon witnessed non-fire loss climb by
more than 25% from 2020 to 2021, according to the analysis.

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In
Indonesia, on the other hand, government policies and private sector
initiatives helped cut primary forest loss by 25% from 2020 to last year,
marking the sixth year in a row that the destruction has slowed, if somewhat
from very high levels.

“It’s
clear that we are not doing enough to provide incentives to those in a position
to stop forest loss, to protect the world’s remaining tropical forest
expanses,” Seymour added.