New research cited by the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch projects that 4.1 million hectares of forest area could be lost in the tropics in 2022. This forest loss resulted in 2.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, almost equal to India’s annual emissions.
key points
- The world is not on track to meet most of its forestry commitments.
- According to the University of Maryland, primary forest cover loss in tropical regions in 2022 was 10% higher than in 2021.
primary forest
- Primary forests are mature, natural forests that are still untouched by human interference.
- These forests store more carbon than other forests and are rich sources of biodiversity.
- Primary forest loss is almost irreversible in nature.
- Even if green cover regrows, secondary forest is unlikely to regain the biodiversity and carbon sequestration capabilities of primary forest.
New findings from Global Forest Watch
- The world is not on track to meet its forest commitments.
WRI measures progress on two goals –
- Ending deforestation by 2030,
- Restoring 350 million hectares (MHA) of degraded and degraded forests by 2030 which represents many of the Global Forest Pledges.
Global deforestation needs to be reduced by at least 10% every year to meet the 2030 target. In 2022, although the global deforestation rate was 3.1% below the 2018–2020 baseline, it was still more than one million hectares above the required level. This puts the world on track to meet the 2030 target ( off track).
Deforestation
- To meet the target of restoring 350 Mha of forest globally by 2030, the world needs to increase tree cover by 22 Mha per year, between 2021 and 2030.
- Despite registering some gains, the overall loss in tree cover in the last 20 years was 100 MHA.
- This means that we are still clearing forests and not restoring them at the expected rate.
- Total global tree cover loss to decline by 10% in 2022.
- It includes primary, secondary and planted forests. According to Global Forest Watch, this reduction is a direct result of a reduction in fire-related forest loss.
- New research cited by the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch says that 4.1 million hectares of forest area could be lost in the tropics in 2022. This is equivalent to losing the area of 11 football fields per minute.
State of india
- According to Global Forest Watch, India will lose 43.9 thousand hectares of moist primary forest between 2021 and 2022, which is 17% of the country’s total tree cover loss during this period.
- The total tree cover loss in India between 2021 and 2022 was 255 thousand hectares.