Global forest loss increases in 2020
The equator provides the necessary temperatures (of above 64 degrees) and average rainfall (at least 66 inches per year) for tropical plants and animals to thrive.
The planet lost an area of tree cover larger than the United Kingdom in 2020, including more than 4.2 million hectares of primary tropical forests, according to data released by the University of Maryland. Let’s read the benefits of tropical forests, the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems and their importance.
According to the data released University of Maryland, the planet lost an area of tree cover larger than the United Kingdom in 2020, including more than 4.2 million hectares of primary tropical forests.
Destruction of primary tropical forests, the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems, released 2.64 billion tons of carbon, an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 570 million cars.
Tree cover loss rose in both the tropics and temperate regions, but the rate of increase in loss was greatest in primary tropical forests, led by rising deforestation and incidence of fire in the Amazon, Earth’s largest rainforest.
Destruction of primary tropical forests, the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems, released 2.64 billion tons of carbon, an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 570 million cars, which is “more than double the number of cars on the road in the United States”, according to WRI.
Global scenario
Brazil (1.7 million hectares of primary forest loss), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (490,000 ha), and Bolivia (277,000 ha) topped the list. Loss in the Brazilian Amazon alone amounted to 1.5 million hectares, a rise of 15% over 2019.
For the first time since the data set began in 2002, Indonesia dropped out of the top three countries in terms of tropical primary forest loss. It ranked fourth with 270,00 hectares of loss, down 17% from 2019.
Tropical Rainforest
A tropical rainforest is a warm-weather, high-precipitation area of trees. While tropical rainforest biomes are of various sizes, the world’s largest tropical rainforest is the Amazon, which stretches over two million square miles (or 550 million hectares).
Tropical rainforests are located worldwide—including Hawaii, Brazil, Central America, South America, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. Almost all of these tropical rainforests run alongside the equator, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The equator provides the necessary temperatures (of above 64 degrees) and average rainfall (at least 66 inches per year) for tropical plants and animals to thrive.
Importance of tropical rainforests
Biodiversity: Tropical rainforests support many different species of plants and animals—it’s estimated that around half of all known species on earth live in rainforest environments, from orangutans to bromeliads to amphibians.
Medicine: Tropical rainforests contain hundreds of thousands of plant species—only a percent have been studied for their medicinal purposes. Over time, scientists have used the compounds found in tropical rainforest plants to develop drugs for cancer treatments, migraines, malaria, fevers, and muscular disorders.
Water supply: Rainforests are a key component of the Earth’s water cycle (through precipitation and transpiration) and water supply (through freshwater storage). The Amazon Basin alone contains around one-fifth of the planet’s freshwater, though it only covers four percent of the earth’s land surface.
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