Cleio Junior, a firefighter at the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, discovered a dead anteater while he was on a fire control mission near the Amazonas state. Photo: Reuters. The above data is based on the research results of MAAP when conducting the analysis of very high resolution satellite images and data, recorded in the territories of all countries in the Amazon Delta, including Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana and Surinam. Accordingly, the Amazon’s primary forest area lost in the past year alone is equivalent to that of the Central American nation of El Salvador. The countries with the most loss of Amazon primary forests in 2020 are Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, respectively. Still according to the MAAP, more than 65% of deforestation of the entire Amazon region in 2020 was recorded in Brazil. South America’s largest country by acreage has lost a total of 1.5 million hectares of forest in the past year, up more than 13% from the year before. The area of ​​deforestation in Brazil is nearly twice the size of Puerto Rico and is mainly concentrated in the south of the country. Meanwhile, the deforestation area in Bolivia in 2020 amounted to a record 240,000 hectares, mainly due to the fires occurring in the Southeast of the country that destroyed the forests in the ecosystems. Chiquitano and Chaco slices. In the case of Peru, the country lost 190,000 hectares of primary forest last year, up 18% from 2019 and also a record number. The main cause of deforestation in Peru is attributed to the burning of forests for arable land. Since mid-2019, data from the early warning satellite system showed that the deforestation rate in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil tended to increase, to the fastest in a decade. According to the Brazilian Institute of Aerospace Research (INPE), the alarm system recorded forest deforestation in May up to 739 km2. This is higher than the 550 square kilometers recorded in May 2018, and twice as high as the area of ​​forest that was destroyed two years ago. According to the head of INPE, Claudio Almeida, 2019 is a “bad year” for the Amazon. As the country with the most area of ​​Amazon, but Brazil is also the country with the most forest loss in 2018 with nearly 16,187 km2. The main reason is due to deforestation for livestock, soybean cultivation and mining. According to the data of Mapbiomas – a research project on the disappearance of protective forest areas in the Amazon forest, in the last 30 years there has been 953,000 hectares of lost forest including protected areas, lands indigenous and inland lands. It is recognized that this figure is equivalent to 6 times the size of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and South America. The results of Mapbiomas add that, excluding protection forests, the Amazon forest area destroyed in the past 30 years has reached 39.8 million hectares, equivalent to 19% of the total natural forest area ever existed. in 1985. Satellite imagery also shows that 84% of the lost area of ​​the world’s largest rainforest has become agricultural land, including pastures and pastures. farmyard. In early December 2020, the European Union (EU) envoy to Brazil, Ambassador Ignacio Ybanez said, until Brazil has not committed to preventing deforestation of the Amazon, the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the South American Common Market (Mercosur) will not be approved by the parliament of the EU member states to come into force. This happens when the world is concerned about the “green lung of the Earth” that is Amazon being burned more and more. The EU Embassy in Brazil mentioned the deforestation of the Amazon and participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change. In fact, the Amazon wildfire is already at an alarming rate. It not only affects a few countries but is also global because it is the largest forest in the world with immeasurable value.

Forest conservation training in Spain. Photo GEUTREE The shrinking forest area seriously threatens the living environment, when the “green lung” is being destroyed every day. The destruction of nearly 70% of the world’s primary tropical forests has exacerbated climate change and biodiversity loss. Primeval rainforests, which are considered “natural buffers” to prevent climate change, are rapidly disappearing because of devastating human activities. According to the Rainforest Foundation Norway nonprofit, between 2002 and 2019, total forest loss was estimated to be greater than that of France. While another study by the World Resources Institute, on average, every six seconds, the area of ​​forest the equivalent of a football field disappears. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Australia, stressed that every year, the world loses 4.7 million hectares of forests, larger than the area of ​​Denmark. The International Organization for the Conservation of Nature (WWF) data shows that only 29 “hotspots” in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia account for 50% of the total deforestation area. bridge. Unsustainable agriculture is one of the main reasons for the disappearance of green forests. A huge area of ​​forest continues to be destroyed every year, mainly for large-scale agriculture. The biodiversity areas have been cleared for farming and livestock. In addition to the degradation of 30% of the forest, logging and land conversion, mainly for agriculture, have wiped out up to 34% of the world’s primary rainforests, leaving the rest of the forest standing. before the danger of further destruction in the future. Brazil’s Ammon forest has been a region of great pressure in the past decades as agricultural development has exploded. According to research by the Ammonia Geographical Reference Social Information Network (RAISG), about 8% of the world’s largest rainforest was destroyed between 2000 and 2018. Annual deforestation tripled between 2015 and 2018. With about 60% of Ammonia forest located in Brazil, the National Institute of Space Research Brazil (INPE The number of wildfires in this South American country increased by 12.7% in 2020, the highest level in the past decade. After Amonon in South America, the East-South Asian islands, largely in Indonesia, ranked second in deforestation since 2002, with most of the area The forest was cut down for palm oil plantations. Central Africa ranks third, with much of the destruction concentrated around the Congo River basin, due to logging and livestock. Scientists have warned about the implications of deforestation on the habitats of wild fauna and flora. Forests cover one third of the Earth’s land area and are home to 80% of all terrestrial wildlife and fauna. Meanwhile, about 90% of the world’s poorest depend on forest resources. The Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) affirmed that forests play an important environmental role and provide essential services to millions of people. Many communities rely on forests for their livelihoods, as well as to ensure vast food security, climate regulation and stabilize the global economy. The dense tropical vegetation acts as the largest carbon reservoir, so the lost forest area is the main factor causing the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, causing the global temperature to heat up. The green forest has called out “cry for help” in the face of being destroyed by human activities. The United Nations and natural environment protection agencies call on the world to have a plan to help harmonize forest protection and wildlife habitat conservation with socio-economic benefits for people. people. Promoting human-appropriate wildlife and forest management models and measures, conservation of forest ecosystems and biodiversity is necessary and urgent.