World Resources Institute: About 3.7 million hectares of tropical rainforest were destroyed last year

On April 4, local time, the annual report released by the World Resources Institute showed that about 3.7 million hectares of tropical rainforest in the world will be destroyed in 2023, which is equivalent to the loss of nearly 10 standard football fields of forest every minute.

△Amazon rainforest (data map)

The report said that the destruction of tropical rainforests in 2023 was partly due to wildfires, but the main cause was man-made deforestation. The area of rainforest lost in 2023 will be about 400,000 hectares less than in 2022, but about the same as in 2019 and 2021. The loss of such a large area of rainforest is equivalent to indirectly generating 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

According to the report, rainforest loss in both Brazil and Colombia decreased significantly in 2023, but Bolivia, Laos and Nicaragua saw a rapid increase in forest loss, which requires vigilance.

Citing data from the World Resources Institute, the German news agency dpap reported that the world has lost between 3 million and 4 million hectares of tropical rainforest every year over the past 20 years.

Through the Global Forest Watch website, several environmental organizations led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) have used satellite technology and other methods to monitor changes in global forest area since 2014. Based on these data, the World Resources Institute (WRI) has compiled an annual report with researchers from the University of Maryland in the United States.