[ti:Study: Deforestation Increased in 2022 Despite Promised Reduction]
[al:Science & Technology]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-06-29]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]A non-profit environmental group says the amount of tropical forest lost around the world in 2022 was equal to an area the size of Switzerland.
[00:14.78]Global Forest Watch is an effort supported by the nonprofit World Resources Institute (WRI), which is based in Washington, D.C. WRI recently released its latest data.
[00:30.75]The group found that about 41,000 square kilometers of tropical forest was lost in 2022. 
[00:39.72]The effort used forest data collected by the University of Maryland.
[00:46.18]The report considered forest loss caused by mechanical clearing for agriculture and woodcutting, and natural causes such as fire, wind and the movements of rivers.
[00:59.12]The report said more than 40 percent of the deforestation took place in Brazil.
[01:05.81]The year 2022 was the final year of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's four-year term in office.
[01:15.97]Last year, losses of Brazilian tropical forest, not including forest fires, reached their recent high point since 2005. 
[01:27.01]Current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has promised to end deforestation in the Amazon.
[01:37.46]He also was president from 2003 to 2011.
[01:42.58]The University of Maryland data shows that, if fire is included, about 28,000 square kilometers of Brazilian tropical forest were lost in 2016-the most in the last 20 years.
[01:59.30]In November 2021, world leaders at a United Nations environmental conference in Glasgow, Scotland, pledged to stop deforestation by 2030.
[02:12.05]But tropical forest loss in 2022 was higher than 2021 levels.
[02:18.73]"2022 numbers are particularly disheartening," said Francis Seymour, a WRI official. 
[02:27.34]"We had hoped by now to see a signal in the data that we were turning the corner on forest loss."
[02:35.55]Global Forest Watch measured what it called primary forests. 
[02:40.94]That includes mature forests that have not been cleared or regrown recently.
[02:46.55]The group says such forests protect against climate change because they absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide. 
[02:55.97]Last year's losses in the tropics released 2.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide.
[03:03.09]That is equal to India's yearly carbon emissions, the report said.
[03:08.79]Indonesia and Malaysia were able to keep the rate of their forest losses near record lows.
[03:15.34]The two nations have continued for several years to limit deforestation caused by the palm oil industry.
[03:23.61]Strict Indonesian policies, like suspending new forestry licenses helped bring about the change.
[03:31.25]Other forest-rich nations have struggled to keep up with Asia's progress.
[03:38.24]The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia had the greatest losses of tropical forest after Brazil.
[03:47.73]Reuters reports that some experts blame commodity agriculture for deforestation in Bolivia. 
[03:55.25]Bolivia did not promise to reduce deforestation during the 2021 U.N. conference in Scotland. 
[04:03.61]The experts say Bolivia's government supports agricultural business expansion.
[04:11.10]The Global Forest Watch effort found deforestation in 2022 was more than 10,000 square kilometers greater than the reductions required to prevent the loss of any forests by 2030.
[04:26.55]Rod Taylor is WRI's world forests program director. 
[04:33.40]He said deforestation around the world is "trending in the wrong direction."
[04:39.58]The University of Maryland data showed that the world lost 10 percent less northern forest in 2022 than 2021. 
[04:49.86]That was because fewer big fires burned in Russian forests. 
[04:54.50]But Russia still lost 43,000 square kilometers of tree cover last year. 
[05:01.93]That is more than the total tropical forest loss around the world.
[05:07.62]I'm Jill Robbins.