The World Has Been Losing 10 Soccer Fields of Tropical Forest Per Minute
Annual forest-loss data from the World Resources Institute shows nations lagging far behind their 2030 pledges.
The Amazon rainforest in Amazonas state, Brazil.
Photographer: Dado Galdieri/BloombergTropical deforestation drives more than 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions, about the same share as the entire population of India. A new analysis released Thursday found that the world lost tropical forest in 2021 at a rate of about 10 soccer pitches a minute.
Last year saw a global loss of 3.8 million hectares (14,286 square miles) of tropical forest, according to the University of Maryland’s 2021 tree-cover loss data published by the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch. That’s a decrease of 11% from 2020, following a 12% rise in 2019, with fire accounting for much of the year-to-year variation.