Since much of the news nowadays is populated by terror-inducing climate developments, the occasional silver lining in the environmental sphere is to be savored (though, not without some caution).
The World Resources Institute’s annual survey for 2023 found that 3.7 million hectares of primary tropical forests were lost globally last year. That’s 9% less than the year before, and 39% less than in 2016, when fires across the Amazon caused staggering reductions — but still the equivalent of ~10 soccer fields of forest being destroyed every minute.
Major shifts in Brazil and Colombia, which saw year-on-year drops in primary forest loss of 36% and 49%, respectively, helped these figures substantially. Indeed, both countries have seen new leaders enact environmental policies to reduce deforestation, including increasing funding for protecting areas and offering incentives for alternative uses of the land.
Unfortunately, on a longer time horizon, the chart above reveals little substantial progress — and, if the promise made by 145 nations at COP26 to end deforestation by 2030 is to be met, there remains a lot of work to be done. While fire-related losses, like those seen in Canada last year, are harder to contain, reduced logging and felling for agriculture must remain a top priority.
