No slowdown in the loss of rainforests worldwide

Tropical rainforests disappeared at a rate of one football pitch every six seconds last year, researchers said yesterday, urging countries to include forest protection in post-pandemic plans.

The loss in 2019 of 3.8 million hectares of tropical primary forest — which means intact areas of old-growth trees — was the third biggest decline since 2000, according to data from Global Forest Watch.

“Primary forests are the areas we are most concerned about — they have the biggest implications for carbon and biodiversity,” said Mikaela Weisse, a project manager at the GFW forest monitoring service.

Loss of primary forest, which hit a record high in 2016 and 2017, was 2.8 percent higher in 2019 than the year before.

Governments preparing post-coronavirus economic stimulus plans should include measures to protect forests, said Weisse.

In the short-term, the virus may weaken enforcement of forest laws, with people taking advantage of that to commit environmental crimes, she warned. In the medium-term, economic stress could hike pressure for more extractive industries in forests or larger-scale agriculture, she added.