Latest news with #BrunoKelly
Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
EU brands just four countries as 'high risk' under deforestation law
FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows deforested land ready for agriculture near the Madeira river in Humaita in Amazonas state, Brazil, September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File Photo EU brands just four countries as 'high risk' under deforestation law BRUSSELS -Commodities from just four countries will face the strictest checks under the European Union's anti-deforestation law, with major forest nations including Brazil and Indonesia spared the toughest rules. In a legal act published on Thursday, the European Commission said the law would categorise goods imported from Belarus, Myanmar, North Korea and Russia as a "high risk" of fuelling deforestation. Countries including Brazil and Indonesia, which have historically been among the countries with the highest rates of deforestation, will be labelled as "standard risk" - which means they will face lighter compliance checks on goods exported to Europe. The United States was among the countries labelled as "low-risk", thus facing less stringent due diligence rules. The EU law will apply to soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee, and some derived products including leather, chocolate and furniture. Companies in high risk and standard risk countries will need to show when and where the commodities were produced and "verifiable" information that they were not grown on land deforested after 2020. A key difference between the groups is that EU countries will be required to carry out compliance checks covering 9% of companies exporting from countries with a high risk of deforestation, 3% from standard-risk countries and 1% for low-risk countries. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 4% of a company's turnover in an EU member state. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
21-05-2025
- Science
- The Star
Amazon fires drive unprecedented global forest loss in 2024, report says
FILE PHOTO: A view of a farm near a forest fire in the Amazon in an area of the Trans-Amazonian Highway BR230 in Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File Photo SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Massive fires fueled by climate change led global forest loss to smash records in 2024, according to a report issued on Wednesday. Loss of tropical pristine forests alone reached 6.7 million hectares (16.6 million acres), an 80% spike compared to 2023 and an area roughly the size of Panama, mainly because Brazil, the host of the next global climate summit in November, struggled to contain fires in the Amazon amid the worst drought ever recorded in the rainforest. A myriad of other countries, including Bolivia and Canada, were also ravaged by wildfires. It was the first time the annual report, issued by the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland, showed fires as the leading cause of tropical forest loss, a grim milestone for a naturally humid ecosystem that is not supposed to burn. "The signals in these data are particularly frightening," said Matthew Hansen, the co-director of alab at the University of Maryland that compiled and analyzed the data. "The fear is that the climate signal is going to overtake our ability to respond effectively." Latin America was hit particularly hard, the report said, with the Amazon biome hitting its highest level of primary forest loss since 2016. Brazil, which holds the largest share of the world's tropical forests, lost 2.8 million hectares (6.9 million acres), the most of any country. It was a reversal ofthe progress made in 2023 when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office promising to protect the world's largest rainforest. 'This was unprecedented, which means we have to adapt all our policy to a new reality,' said Andre Lima, who oversees deforestation control policies for Brazil's Ministry of Environment, adding that fire, which was never among the leading causes of forest loss, is now a top priority for the government. Bolivia overtook the Democratic Republic of Congo as the second country with the most tropical forest loss despite having less than half the amount of forest as the African nation, which also saw a spike in forest loss last year. Bolivia's forest loss surged by 200% in 2024, with a drought, wildfires and a government-incentivized agricultural expansion as the leading causes. Across Latin America, the report noted similar trends in Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Conflicts in Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo also boosted deforestation rates, as armed groups used up natural resources. Outside the tropics, boreal forests, which evolved with seasonal fires, also posted record-high tree loss in 2024, with Canada and Russia each losing 5.2 million hectares (12.8 million acres) in 2024 as wildfires got out of control. Southeast Asia bucked the global trend with Malaysia, Laos, and Indonesia all posting double-digit decreases in primary forest loss, as domestic conservation policy, combined with efforts by communities and the private sector, continued to effectively contain fires and agricultural expansion. Another outlier was the Charagua Iyambae Indigenousterritory in southern Bolivia, which was able to keep the country's record fires at bay through land-use policies and early warning systems. Rod Taylor, the global director for forests at the WRI, said that as leaders descend on the Amazonian city of Belem for the next climate summit, he would like to see countries make progress in introducing better funding mechanisms for conservation. "At the moment," he said, "there's more money to be paid by chopping forests down than keeping them standing." (Reporting by Manuela Andreoni and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Chris Reese)
