The planet lost more than 1 billion acres of forest between 1960 and 2019, according to a new study published this week in the journal Environmental Research Letters. This deforestation happened faster than trees could replenish, amounting to a net loss of about 200 million acres of forestland over the past 60 years, an area nearly the size of Venezuela.
The study authors warn that this deforestation is already impacting 1.6 billion people worldwide who depend on forests for their livelihoods. If deforestation continues, they say, it could also jeopardize international goals to preserve biodiversity and limit global warming. “[T]he continuous loss and degradation of forests affect the integrity of forest ecosystems, reducing their ability to generate and provide essential services and sustain biodiversity,” the scientists said in a press release
The research, which was led by an international team of 10 scientists, used global land-use data, including from satellites, to document the planet’s loss and gain of forests for each decade between 1960 and 2019. Although Earth gained forest cover between 1960 and 1970, the study documented losses every decade after that, with deforestation accelerating rapidly starting in the 1990s. By 2010 to 2019, the world’s total forest cover was shrinking by nearly 1 million acres per year, thanks in large part to “unprecedented” commercial logging, new mining projects, and agricultural expansion.
— source grist.org | Joseph Winters | Aug 05, 2022