
Destruction of tropical forests worldwide increased inn 2019 which was led again by Brazil, which was responsible for more than a third of the total, and where deforestation of the Amazon through clear-cutting appears to be on the rise under the development policies of the country.
The worldwide total loss of old-growth, or primary, tropical forest 9.3 million acres which is an area nearly the size of Switzerland was about 3 percent higher than 2018 and the third largest since 2002. Only 2016 and 2017 were worse, when heat and drought led to the fires and caused a lot of deforestation.
There has been so much international effort and oratory around reducing deforestation and companies with the governments making all these commitments that they are going to reduce by half their tropical forest loss by 2020.
Researchers estimated that the loss of tropical forest in 2019 caused in the release of more than 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide or more than the emissions from all of the vehicles in United States in a typical year. Much of the tree cover loss that the researchers data reveals occurs tree plantations or other areas that are not old-growth forests. The scientists then do further analysis to determine the loss from those old-growth forests, which are important for storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and for maintaining biodiversity, and can take decades to recover once destroyed.
Farming, livestock and mining combined account for more than half of all deforestation. Forestry practices, wildfires and urbanization account for the remaining. As the logging operations, which provide the wood and paper products, also fell huge amount of trees each year. Some of loggers action illegally also they build roads to access more and more forests which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban areas and it is developed for homes and other projects.
Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees.Brazil and many other tropical countries experience those kinds of fires every year. Brazil had a high number in 2019, especially in August.Many of the fires occurred on lands that had been previously deforested and were being burned in preparation for planting.Sadly, there was a big loss of forests In year 2019.
