According to a report published by Global Forest Watch, during 2019 the tropics lost every six seconds an area of primary forest equivalent to that of a football field. Latin America was one of the areas of the planet most affected by deforestation, with very significant forest losses in Brazil and Bolivia. Although we all have large forest fires in mind, the causes of forest loss are very varied, since many human activities such as agriculture, mining, urban use or the construction of infrastructures demand the use of the land.
Primary or virgin forests function as natural carbon dioxide sinks, in addition to harboring high biodiversity and providing man with a multitude of services. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Forest Land Use Data Explorer tool is a very useful database that helps to understand changes in forest resources throughout the world. weather. This online application includes examining the surface and characteristics of the forests; the state of biodiversity and conservation; ecosystem services and protective functions; forest degradation and disturbance; livelihoods; the property; forest production; and progress towards sustainable forest management.
The Global Forest Resources Assessment report published every five years by FAO provides an overview of the state of forests around the world. In this gallery we present a list of the countries with the most forest area. It is striking that the first five countries on the list contain more than half (54%) of the world’s forests. Furthermore, forests cover almost a third of the total land area. The report also indicates that the world has lost 178 million hectares of forest since 1990, although the good news is that the rate of loss has slowed in recent years. If we take into account only primary forests (composed of native species in which there are no obvious traces of human activities and their ecological processes have not been significantly altered), the rate of loss has also decreased in the 2010 period. – 2020. Brazil, Canada and the Russian Federation would host more than half of the world’s primary forests.
