Countries that are still deforesting
Over the past decade, 4.7 million hectares of forest have been destroyed annually. The worst-hit countries are Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia. World leaders have pledged to end deforestation and reforestation by 2030. They sold at the COP-26 climate summit in Glasgow.
How bad is deforestation at present?
Forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is one of the primary drivers of global warming. As a result, deforestation hurts the climate. According to the United Nations, 1 billion acres of forest have been destroyed since 1990. Agriculture is a significant cause of deforestation.
However, this is not the first attempt to protect the forest. In 2014, the United Nations announced an agreement to halve deforestation by 2020 and reduce it to zero by 2030. Then, in 2017, they set another goal in this regard. The goal is to increase the world’s forest cover by 3 percent by 2030.
However, even after all these agreements, the situation did not improve. Over the past decade, 4.7 million hectares of forest have been destroyed annually. The worst-hit countries are Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia.
Brazil: Illegal logging continues
About 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil. According to the country’s National Space Research Institute (INPE), deforestation has decreased since 2004 but has recently increased again. In 2020, they said, the government had the highest deforestation rate in a decade.
In this regard, the President of Brazil, Zaire Bolsonaro, told the United Nations that deforestation is less than in 2020, until August this year. However, since he took office, deforestation has increased since 2019.
Earlier, President Bolsonaro was criticized for encouraging agriculture and mining in the Amazon. He reduced the funding of government agencies responsible for prosecuting farmers and loggers violating environmental laws. Penalties for illegal logging were decreased by 20 percent in 2020. Although exact figures are not available, recent research suggests that up to 94 percent of deforestation and habitat destruction in Brazil may be illegal.
However, Brazil, as well as its neighbors, are responsible for deforestation. Bolivia lost about 300,000 hectares of tropical forest last year.
Congo Basin: Agriculture and mining
The Congo Forest Basin is the second-largest rainforest in the world. More than half of it is located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to Environmental Campaign Group Greenpeace, large and small companies are deforesting illegally. It is still being smuggled out of the country despite the United States and the European Union banning illegal timber imports from Congo. Other threats to deforestation include small-scale subsistence farming, clearing of charcoal and fuel, urban expansion, and mining.
Last month, President Felix Shisekedi ordered a survey of some of the leases allocated for deforestation. One of these forests covers an area of more than 1.4 million hectares.
Indonesia: Palm Oil Gardens
Indonesia has been among the top five countries in the world for deforestation for the past two decades. According to Global Forest Watch, the country lost 9.75 million hectares of forest between 2002 and 2020. In 2014, Indonesian President Joko Widodo took action against clearing land for an oil palm orchard. These palm oil gardens are the leading cause of deforestation in the country. According to government figures, about 80 percent of the forests are set on fire for palm oil. However, in 2020, the rate of deforestation fell to record levels.
In 2019, President Widodo issued a three-year moratorium on new wildlife clearances. This clearance covers about 66 million hectares of primary forest and Portland. This year the ban has been extended indefinitely.