From Canopy to Carbon: The Devastating Impacts of Deforestation

Last year, the tropics lost a record-shattering six million, seven hundred thousand hectares of primary rainforest, an area equivalent to the size of Panama, at a rate of eighteen football fields per minute, causing over three gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

In the year before, the tropics lost 3.7 million hectares (37,000 square kilometers) of primary rainforest, an area equivalent to the size of Switzerland or Maryland in the United States, fuelling a deforestation growth of 3.2 percent and causing about 2.4 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

In the year before, the world lost 4.1 million hectares of primary rainforest, equivalent to 11 football fields lost per minute, the loss resulting in the emission of 2.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, a figure equal to India's annual fossil fuel emissions.

In the last three years, therefore, the world has lost at least 14.5 million hectares of primary rainforest, an area equivalent to the size of Bangladesh or bigger than England, a loss resulting in the emission of about 8.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Fire burned five times more tropical primary forest in 2024 than in 2023, fuelled by the hot and dry conditions of the hottest year on record, while primary forest loss unrelated to fires also rose by 14 percent between 2023 and 2024.

Fire burned a significant proportion of tropical rainforest in 2023, with 26.4 million acres of Brazil's Amazon rainforest affected, culprits for forest loss also seen in agricultural expansion, logging, and other activities related to humans.

Fire burned a significant proportion of tropical rainforests in 2022, surpassing land clearance for agriculture for the first time, with the Amazon region losing over 35,000 square kilometers of intact humid forest, a 15 percent increase compared to 2021.

In the past three years, fire has proven to be the major driver of the loss of tropical rainforests, surpassing land clearance for agricultural production in the process, fuelled by conditions brought by climate change and human activities not unrelated to greed and consumption.

The rate of primary forest loss last year across the tropics came at a high level, with several countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia, and Laos hitting record figures, but this could prove to be a disadvantage, since it puts the 2030 zero-deforestation target out of reach.

The projected rate of primary forest loss across the tropics by 2050 is alarming, since experts put the figure in the region of 230 million hectares, with 27 percent of the undisturbed rainforest in the Congo region vanishing, and 58 percent of Amazonian tree species suffering the same fate.

The rate of forest loss by 2100 could be even more disastrous, if things continue as they do, with more than half the world's largest forests gone, through temperature rise of three degrees Celsius or more, only 18 to 45 percent of plants and animals in tropical forests remaining as we know them.

In the near future, the rate of primary forest loss could continue, leading to more than half the world's forests disappearing, accelerating the impacts of climate change, making Earth an increasingly difficult place for humans to thrive.

Community-led initiatives, policy reforms, and sustainable livelihoods remain crucial towards reducing deforestation and promoting intelligent forest management, ultimately saving us from the coming dangers.

What to Eat

Vegan food from Laos, Credit, Golaos.tours