Africa and South America lost forest, Europe won but Portugal is an exception
Africa and South America and the Caribbean are the regions in the world that have lost the highest percentage of forest in the last 30 years, with Europe showing a reforestation, although Portugal is one of the exceptions.
According to figures released on the online platform “Visual Capitalist”, which compiles world data on areas ranging from the global economy to markets, technology, health or the environment, in 30 years Portugal lost 2.6% of its forests to unlike Spain, which gained 33.6% more.
The platform makes a global balance of afforestation and deforestation in the last 30 years and concludes that 43% of countries saw their forests as reduced, 38% gained forest area and 19% remained the same.
Since 1990, the world has lost more than 04% of its forests, an area equivalent to half of India.
By continent, data from the platform indicate, Africa lost 16.64% of its forests (Algeria, Morocco and Egypt gained forest, but these are exceptions), with Côte d’Ivoire having the largest deforestation, 63.9%. Angola and Mozambique lost about 15% each.
North and Central America did not have a full variation (they lost 0.27% of their forests since 1990) but South America and the Caribbean are the second region in the world with the most deforestation in 30 years, 15.4%.
On this continent, Uruguay stands out positively, which more than doubled a forest area (increased 154.5%), and countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay on the negative side, with large percentages of deforestation.
In Europe, with a 2.26% increase in forests, Iceland and Ireland stand out as countries where forests have increased the most. And if Oceania didn’t have to change, Asia was the continent with the greatest forestry increase since 1990, 6.10%, with only China increasing afforestation by 40%.
Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were at the base of the calculation of the net forest change by country and region, says the platform, responsible remember that forests, which currently occupy 31% of the total land surface, they are major carbon sinks and critical to wildlife habitats and vital human resources.
In the analysis, it is noted that, although the net loss of forest around the world is very large, a rate of forest loss has slowed in the last three decades. And even so, countries in South America and almost all of Africa continue to increase deforestation.
The platform gives as an example Brazil, whose loss of Amazon rainforest is largely due to the use of the land to raise cattle.
“It is estimated that 80% of the Amazon’s deforested land area has been replaced by pasture, and the resulting beef production is known to be among the worst meats for the environment in terms of carbon demand,” he says. on the platform, which highlights another “great driver” of deforestation, seed and palm oil agriculture, concentrated in Indonesia and Malaysia.
By countries and in terms of the amount of deforested area, Brazil appears in first place, followed by Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Tanzania. As a percentage of forest loss in relation to total forest, Paraguay (37%) is the most lost, followed by Myanmar (27.22) and Indonesia (22.28%).
In the document, it is noted that for every dollar invested in landscape restoration, there is a return of up to 30 dollars. And that reducing deforestation is one of the ways to achieve climate goals, not to mention that forests are the greatest habitat and source of biodiversity, home to nearly 70 million indigenous peoples and the livelihood of 1.6 million people.