Forest Loss

More than 43 million hectares of forest — an area bigger than Germany — have been lost in a little over a decade in just a handful of deforestation hotspots, conservation organisation WWF said Wednesday.

There is also a huge threat to indigenous communities that have lived off what forests provide for centuries or longer.

Ana Mota da Silva, a member of the Mumbuca community in the Cerrado — where deforestation rose 13 percent in 2020 — said she feared for the future.

“Knowing that our rivers are drying up, that so many trees are dying… the certainty that my sons, cousins, my descendants will not see what I have seen,” she said.

“We now face the Cerrado being devastated and us with it.”

Recent research has shown that, beyond a certain threshold, deforestation in the Amazon basin could tip the region into a new climate regime, turning tropical forests into savannah.

The WWF report urged citizens to do their bit by avoiding products linked to deforestation such as some meat, soy and palm oil products.

It also urged governments to work to secure the rights of indigenous peoples and conserve biodiversity-rich areas.