• 2021 tropical forest loss equalled 10 football pitches a minute
• Over 40% happened in Brazil but Indonesian and Malaysia improve
• Meeting COP26 goal to end deforestation by 2030 is a challenge
By Michael Taylor, Fabio Teixeira and Kim Harrisberg
KUALA LUMPUR/RIO DE JANEIRO/DURBAN, April 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – At the entrance to the Jaminawa territory, a disputed forest area near the Purus River in the Brazilian Amazon, a sign alerted visitors they were entering indigenous land, until it was burned down this year by invaders, along with many trees.
Indigenous leader Francisco Jaminawa said cattle ranchers were likely responsible for the fires on the land, which is protected from deforestation by a decade-old court decision.
“Every year they come in, they disrespect us,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. “They knock everything down and then plant grass for their cattle.”
Worldwide, tropical forest losses amounted to 3.75 million hectares (9.3 million acres) last year, a rate equal to 10 football pitches a minute, according to new data from the University of Maryland published on Thursday by Global Forest Watch (GFW).
That figure was 11% lower than in 2020, mainly due to wetter weather, but did not signal a broader downward trend in deforestation, warned researchers with the monitoring service run by the Washington-based World Resources Institute.
Forest losses caused by factors other than fires have stayed consistent over the last few years, with annual fluctuations usually linked to the severity of fires, which is in turn driven by weather patterns, said Mikaela Weisse, GFW’s deputy director.
From 2019 to 2020, primary forest losses increased by 12% largely due to fires, she noted.
Cutting down forests has major implications for global goals to curb climate change, as trees absorb about a third of the planet-warming carbon emissions produced worldwide.
Forests also provide food and incomes for people living in or near them, are an essential habitat for wildlife, aid rainfall and prevent flooding.
BRAZIL TOPS LOSSES
The top five countries for loss of old-growth forests in 2021 were Brazil at 1.55 million hectares, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at 499,000 hectares, Bolivia at 291,000 hectares, Indonesia at 203,000 hectares and Peru at 154,000 hectares.
More than 40% of the global forest loss occurred in Brazil, where losses caused by factors other than fires rose 9% between 2020 and 2021, largely associated with agricultural expansion.
Francisco Jaminawa leads a community of about 180 villagers at São Paulino, inside his people’s territory which lies at the border between Amazonas and Acre, two Amazon states where deforestation was most rampant last year, according to GFW data.
Since the 2000s, community members have fought for the right to live on their ancestral lands, but in the past few years they have been losing the battle to increasingly aggressive cattle ranchers, said Jaminawa.
The farmers feel emboldened by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has weakened environmental bodies and turned Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency Funai against those it is meant to protect.
Jaminawa said most of his community’s “good land” had been taken, leaving them with almost nothing left to subsist on.
“It’s very sad, our life in this community … We are cornered,” he added.
FACTBOX-Global tropical forest loss falls in 2021 but outlook bleak
