Tropical forest loss doubles, fire a leading cause: Report
Fires caused by dry conditions, in turn brought about by the climate crisis resulted in record forest loss in 2024, including in India, according to new data from the University of Maryland's GLAD (Global Land Analysis & Discovery) Lab released by World Resources Institute's Global Forest Watch platform.
The loss of tropical primary forests reached 6.7 million hectares in the year — nearly twice as much as in 2023 and an area nearly the size of Panama, at the rate of 18 soccer fields every minute, Global Forest Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.
India saw a 6.9% decrease in tree cover loss between 2023 and 2024 but a 5.9% increase in loss of humid primary forests in 2024, according to the data.
One of the factors that may have led to increase in primary forest loss last year in India are forest fires, the data indicates. Primary forest loss due to fires was around 950 hectares last year compared to 368 hectares in 2023, a 158% rise. India lost 22,958 hectares of primary forests compared to 21,672 hectares in 2023. Of this, 22,008 hectares were lost due to non-forest drivers.
That is the global trend too. For the first time in the records of GFW, fires and not agriculture were the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss, accounting for nearly 50% of all forest loss. This marks a dramatic shift from recent years, when fires averaged just around 20% to forest loss. Tropical primary forest loss driven by other causes also jumped by 14%, the sharpest increase since 2016.
'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data. It's a global red alert — a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a liveable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health — none of it can survive without forests,' said Elizabeth Goldman, Co-Director, WRI's Global Forest Watch in a statement.
Brazil with largest area under tropical forests, accounted for 42% of all tropical primary forest loss in 2024. Fires, fuelled by the worst drought on record, caused 66% of that loss-- over sixfold increase from 2023. The Amazon recorded its highest tree cover loss since 2016. Bolivia's primary forest loss increased by 200% in 2024. For the first time, it ranked second for tropical primary forest loss only to Brazil, overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo despite having less than half its forest area, the analysis said.
Fires burned five times more tropical primary forest in 2024 than in 2023. In tropical forests fires are almost entirely human caused, often started to clear land for agriculture and spreading out of control in nearby forests. 2024 was the hottest year on record with hot, dry conditions largely caused by climate change and El Nino. Latin America was particularly hard hit, the analysis said.
The area under tree cover includes all tree cover (planted, natural, primary, agroforestry); while primary humid forests are essentially old growth forests which have not been regrown, Global Forest Watch data shows.
GFW which mainly uses satellite data for their analysis records India's baseline tree cover as 38,830,421 ha in 2001 and primary forest cover as 10,185,436 ha.
From 2002 to 2024, India lost 348,000 ha of humid primary forest, making up 15% of its total tree cover loss in the same time period. From 2001 to 2024, India lost 2.31 million hectares of tree cover, equivalent to a 7.1% decrease in tree cover since 2000, GFW said.
The dominant drivers of primary forest loss in India are shifting cultivation, agriculture and logging. Most of the loss since 2001 has occurred in northeastern states including Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram etc according to GFW.
From 2000 to 2020, India gained 1.78 million ha of tree cover equal to 1.4% of the global total.
The Union environment ministry did not respond to HT's queries on the forest cover loss in 2024 .
HT reported on May 9 that India reported that its forest and tree cover is now 25.17% of its geographical area as per the latest India State of Forest Report (2023).
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Hindustan Times
22-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Tropical forest loss doubles, fire a leading cause: Report
Fires caused by dry conditions, in turn brought about by the climate crisis resulted in record forest loss in 2024, including in India, according to new data from the University of Maryland's GLAD (Global Land Analysis & Discovery) Lab released by World Resources Institute's Global Forest Watch platform. The loss of tropical primary forests reached 6.7 million hectares in the year — nearly twice as much as in 2023 and an area nearly the size of Panama, at the rate of 18 soccer fields every minute, Global Forest Watch said in a statement on Wednesday. India saw a 6.9% decrease in tree cover loss between 2023 and 2024 but a 5.9% increase in loss of humid primary forests in 2024, according to the data. One of the factors that may have led to increase in primary forest loss last year in India are forest fires, the data indicates. Primary forest loss due to fires was around 950 hectares last year compared to 368 hectares in 2023, a 158% rise. India lost 22,958 hectares of primary forests compared to 21,672 hectares in 2023. Of this, 22,008 hectares were lost due to non-forest drivers. That is the global trend too. For the first time in the records of GFW, fires and not agriculture were the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss, accounting for nearly 50% of all forest loss. This marks a dramatic shift from recent years, when fires averaged just around 20% to forest loss. Tropical primary forest loss driven by other causes also jumped by 14%, the sharpest increase since 2016. 'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data. It's a global red alert — a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a liveable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health — none of it can survive without forests,' said Elizabeth Goldman, Co-Director, WRI's Global Forest Watch in a statement. Brazil with largest area under tropical forests, accounted for 42% of all tropical primary forest loss in 2024. Fires, fuelled by the worst drought on record, caused 66% of that loss-- over sixfold increase from 2023. The Amazon recorded its highest tree cover loss since 2016. Bolivia's primary forest loss increased by 200% in 2024. For the first time, it ranked second for tropical primary forest loss only to Brazil, overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo despite having less than half its forest area, the analysis said. Fires burned five times more tropical primary forest in 2024 than in 2023. In tropical forests fires are almost entirely human caused, often started to clear land for agriculture and spreading out of control in nearby forests. 2024 was the hottest year on record with hot, dry conditions largely caused by climate change and El Nino. Latin America was particularly hard hit, the analysis said. The area under tree cover includes all tree cover (planted, natural, primary, agroforestry); while primary humid forests are essentially old growth forests which have not been regrown, Global Forest Watch data shows. GFW which mainly uses satellite data for their analysis records India's baseline tree cover as 38,830,421 ha in 2001 and primary forest cover as 10,185,436 ha. From 2002 to 2024, India lost 348,000 ha of humid primary forest, making up 15% of its total tree cover loss in the same time period. From 2001 to 2024, India lost 2.31 million hectares of tree cover, equivalent to a 7.1% decrease in tree cover since 2000, GFW said. The dominant drivers of primary forest loss in India are shifting cultivation, agriculture and logging. Most of the loss since 2001 has occurred in northeastern states including Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram etc according to GFW. From 2000 to 2020, India gained 1.78 million ha of tree cover equal to 1.4% of the global total. The Union environment ministry did not respond to HT's queries on the forest cover loss in 2024 . HT reported on May 9 that India reported that its forest and tree cover is now 25.17% of its geographical area as per the latest India State of Forest Report (2023).
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Time of India
Conflict and climate drive record global hunger in 2024, UN says
Rome: Acute food insecurity and child malnutrition rose for a sixth consecutive year in 2024, affecting more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories, according to a U.N. report released on Friday. That marked a 5 per cent increase on 2023 levels, with 22.6 per cent of populations in worst-hit regions experiencing crisis-level hunger or worse. "The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises paints a staggering picture," said Rein Paulsen, Director of Emergencies and Resilience at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Conflict, weather extremes and economic shocks are the main drivers, and they often overlap," he added. Looking ahead, the U.N. warned of worsening conditions this year, citing the steepest projected drop in humanitarian food funding since the report's inception -- put at anywhere between 10% to more than 45 per cent. U.S. President Donald Trump has led the way, largely shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides aid to the world's needy, cancelling more than 80 per cent of its humanitarian programs. "Millions of hungry people have lost, or will soon lose, the critical lifeline we provide," warned Cindy McCain, the head of the Rome-based World Food Programme. Conflict was the leading cause of hunger, impacting nearly 140 million people across 20 countries in 2024, including areas facing "catastrophic" levels of food insecurity in Gaza, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali. Sudan has confirmed famine conditions. Economic shocks, such as inflation and currency devaluation, helped push 59.4 million people into food crises in 15 countries -- nearly double the levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic -- including Syria and Yemen. Extreme weather, particularly El Nino-induced droughts and floods, shunted 18 countries into crisis, affecting more than 96 million people, especially in Southern Africa, Southern Asia, and the Horn of Africa. The number of people facing famine-like conditions more than doubled to 1.9 million -- the highest since monitoring for the global report began in 2016. Malnutrition among children reached alarming levels, the report said. Nearly 38 million children under five were acutely malnourished across 26 nutrition crises, including in Sudan, Yemen, Mali and Gaza. Forced displacement also exacerbated hunger. Nearly 95 million forcibly displaced people, including refugees and internally displaced persons, lived in countries facing food crises, such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia. Despite the grim overall trend, 2024 saw some progress. In 15 countries, including Ukraine, Kenya and Guatemala, food insecurity eased due to humanitarian aid , improved harvests, easing inflation and a decline in conflict. To break the cycle of hunger, the report called for investment in local food systems. "Evidence shows that supporting local agriculture can help the most people, with dignity, at lower cost," Paulsen said.
Mint
03-05-2025
- Mint
Africa's charcoal economy
When Gibril Ali talks of 'black gold", he does not mean oil. He buys it in sacks, not barrels. He sells it to his customers in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, from a metal shack. But in Kenya there is enough money in charcoal to make 'big, big people" get rich by transporting it, he says. Charcoal has fuelled Africa's urbanisation. It is dense in energy and hard to regulate, much like cities themselves. Despite concerns about pollution, lost trees and illicit money flows, it refuses to go away. Nearly 200m Africans cook mostly with charcoal, including 27% of urbanites (see chart). The share has grown since 1990, offsetting the falling use of firewood. If there has been an African energy transition, it is from one kind of wood fuel to another. The appeal of charcoal is its convenience. By weight it contains nearly twice as much energy as the wood from which it is made. That makes it easier to transport, helping megacities to outgrow their sketchy infrastructure. In Kinshasa, a Congolese metropolis of 18m people, almost everyone cooks with it. Never before, writes Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, a French historian, have cities reached such a size while relying so much on wood. In the African countryside, tens of millions of people use earth kilns to make charcoal, outnumbering all the world's coal miners. The process involves heating wood under low-oxygen conditions to remove moisture and volatile gases. Logs and branches are stacked into a pile, covered with grass and soil and burned for several days. This process yields between one and two tonnes of charcoal for every ten of dry wood. It emits much more carbon than transporting or burning it. The wood often comes free, because producers harvest from their own land or from forests. Many are farmers who sell charcoal to traders when they need a bit of cash. Others are businessmen who bring in work teams from afar, dish out chainsaws, then pay off a landowner or chief. Locals often complain that outsiders take their trees. Vigilantes have attacked charcoal trucks in Kenya and Uganda. The value of Africa's charcoal trade is thought to be in the tens of billions of dollars, maybe more than Africans make from cocoa or coffee. The money trail often leads to soldiers or officials. The UN Security Council banned charcoal exports from Somalia because jihadists were making millions selling it to the Gulf, where shisha smokers prize the aroma of acacia wood. Charcoal production leaves destruction in its wake. In Mabalane district in Mozambique, two-thirds of woodland was affected by it in the decade to 2018, estimates a study by Fernando Sedano, then at the University of Maryland, and others. But in some places agriculture is the bigger culprit. Farmers might clear land mainly to grow crops, making kilns as they go. In Kitui county, about 200km east of Nairobi, Joseph Kisovi Martha describes a dilemma. In ten years all the trees will be gone, he says, sitting near a stump. But he felled the tree himself. How else, he asks, is he to pay school fees for his children? To address the downsides of the charcoal trade, governments oscillate between trying to make it legal, through licensing and forest management, and outlawing it . Abrupt bans create an illicit market, says Tuyeni Mwampamba, a Tanzanian researcher. Enforcement is a messy negotiation between traders, officials, police, soldiers and local residents. Lorry drivers move at night and pay bribes at checkpoints. In Uganda, where production is banned, charcoal is smuggled across the border before being reimported with a seal from South Sudan. Other policies encourage 'clean cooking". Liquid petroleum gas is cleaner than charcoal and in Kenya is exempted from VAT. Firms are putting meters on gas canisters so consumers can pay as they go, rather than facing a big cost upfront. More than half of urban Kenyans now use LPG as their main fuel. Burn Manufacturing, which makes efficient stoves, has stopped selling its charcoal model there and is promoting electric ones instead, subsidised by carbon credits. Its boss, Peter Scott, argues that charcoal is 'dying out" in Kenya, though not in countries like Madagascar or Zambia, where alternatives are scarce. Ending the use of charcoal would have economic consequences. The trade is informal and decentralised; gas flows through big firms, without creating as many jobs. Charcoal provides roughly 275 days of work for each terajoule consumed, compared with 95 for electricity and 15 for LPG. Gas imports eat up foreign currency. For now, consumers mix and match energy sources. Charcoal production in Africa is still growing by 2% a year. Mr Ali's neighbours use it for slow cooking, like boiling beans. Nearby shops sell gas and ethanol fuel. He is not worried about competition. 'As long as there is the ghetto, they will always use [charcoal]," he says. © 2025, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on
