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The Independent
21-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
‘Global red alert': Forest loss hit record levels in 2024
Global forest loss surged to record levels in 2024, with wildfires destroying 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest – nearly double the previous year's – according to new satellite data. For the first time, fires, not agriculture, were the leading driver of tropical forest loss, according to data released by Global Forest Watch, as experts called it a 'global red alert'. The new figures, based on analysis by the University of Maryland 's GLAD Lab and published on the World Resources Institute 's Global Forest Watch platform, reveal the devastating toll of fire-fuelled deforestation on both the climate and vulnerable communities around the world. 'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data,' said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch. '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.' The loss of tropical primary forests – vital ecosystems that store carbon and support biodiversity – amounted to an area nearly the size of Panama vanishing at a rate of 18 football fields per minute. Globally, fires emitted 4.1 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases, more than four times the emissions from all commercial air travel in 2023. 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. Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch While wildfires are common in boreal regions, fire has historically been a secondary cause of tropical deforestation. In 2024, however, fires accounted for nearly half of all tropical primary forest loss – up from 20 per cent in previous years. The report attributes the shift to a combination of human activity, rising land pressure and extreme heat, worsened by El Niño and the continued impacts of the climate crisis. '2024 was the worst year on record for fire-driven forest loss, breaking the record set just last year,' said Peter Potapov, research professor at the University of Maryland and co-director of the GLAD Lab. 'If this trend continues, it could permanently transform critical natural areas and unleash large amounts of carbon, intensifying climate crisis and fuelling even more extreme fires.' Brazil accounted for 42 per cent of all tropical primary forest loss in 2024. In the Amazon, tree cover loss was the highest since 2016, while the Pantanal saw its worst year on record. Fires, made worse by Brazil's most severe drought to date, were responsible for two-thirds of the loss in the country – a more than sixfold increase from 2023. 'Brazil has made progress under President Lula (Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), but the threat to forests remains,' said Mariana Oliveira, director of the Forests and Land Use Program at WRI Brasil. 'Without sustained investment in community fire prevention, stronger state-level enforcement and a focus on sustainable land use, hard-won gains risk being undone. As Brazil prepares to host Cop30 [climate summit], it has a powerful opportunity to put forest protection front and centre on the global stage.' Bolivia saw the second-highest forest loss in the tropics, overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo for the first time. Primary forest loss there jumped by 200 per cent in 2024 to 1.5 million hectares, more than half of it driven by fires. 'The fires that tore through Bolivia in 2024 left deep scars – not only on the land but on the people who depend on it,' said Stasiek Czaplicki Cabezas, a Bolivian researcher and data journalist for Revista Nómadas. 'The damage could take centuries to undo.' Colombia, meanwhile, experienced a nearly 50 per cent increase in forest loss, though largely from illegal mining and coca cultivation rather than fire. 'We need to keep supporting local, nature-based economies – especially in remote areas – and invest in solutions that protect the environment, create jobs and foster peace,' said Joaquin Carrizosa, senior advisor at WRI Colombia. Forest loss also spiked across Central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. In the ROC, fire-related loss rose to 45 per cent, driven by drought and unseasonably hot conditions. In the DRC, longstanding poverty and conflict continue to fuel deforestation. 'There's no silver bullet,' said Teodyl Nkuintchua, WRI Africa's Congo Basin strategy and engagement lead. 'But we won't change the current trajectory until people across the Congo Basin are fully empowered to lead conservation efforts that also support their rural economies.' Dr Matt Hansen, co-director of the GLAD Lab, warned: 'We're seeing unprecedented forest loss from fire in the few remaining 'High Forest, Low Deforestation' countries, like the Republic of Congo. This new dynamic is outside of current policy frameworks or intervention capabilities and will severely test our ability to maintain intact forests within a warming climate.' Amid the devastation, the report highlighted progress in parts of Southeast Asia. Indonesia reduced primary forest loss by 11 per cent, helped by long-standing efforts to restore degraded land and control fires. Malaysia saw a 13 per cent decline and dropped out of the top 10 for tropical forest loss for the first time. 'We're proud that Indonesia is one of the few countries in the world to reduce primary forest loss,' said Arief Wijaya, managing director at WRI Indonesia. 'But deforestation remains a concern due to plantations, small-scale farming and mining – even within protected areas.' The year also saw intense fire seasons in boreal forests, with Canada and Russia contributing to a 5 per cent rise in total tree cover loss globally – 30 million hectares in total, an area roughly the size of Italy. To meet the goal of halting forest loss by 2030, the world needs to cut deforestation by 20 per cent each year starting now. But in 2024, tropical forest loss increased by 80 per cent. 'Countries have repeatedly pledged to halt deforestation and forest degradation,' said Kelly Levin, chief of science, data and systems change at the Bezos Earth Fund. 'Yet the data reveal a stark gap between promises made and progress delivered.' Rod Taylor, director of forests and nature conservation at WRI, added: 'Forest fires and land clearing are driving up emissions, while the climate is already changing faster than forests can adapt. This crisis is pushing countless species to the brink and forcing Indigenous Peoples and local communities from their ancestral lands.' The report says that the path forward requires stronger fire prevention, deforestation-free supply chains, support for Indigenous land stewardship and greater political will, especially from countries that made bold commitments at climate summits, but are failing to follow through.
Euronews
21-05-2025
- Science
- Euronews
World forest loss last year ‘unlike anything we've seen', data shows
The world lost a record amount of forest in 2024, driven by a catastrophic rise in fires. New data from the University of Maryland's GLAD Lab, made available on World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform, shows that loss of tropical primary forests alone reached 6.7 million hectares last year - twice as much as in 2023 and an area nearly the size of Panama. That is around 18 football pitches lost every 18 minutes. For the first time on record, fires, not agriculture, were the leading cause of this loss, accounting for nearly half of all destruction. They burned five times more tropical primary forest in 2024 than in 2023. Latin America was particularly hard hit. In total, these fires emitted 4.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions - more than four times the emissions of all air travel in 2023. 'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data,' says Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of WRI's Global Forest Watch. 'It's a global red alert - a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a livable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health - none of it can survive without forests.' Though forest fires are natural in some ecosystems, they are mostly human-caused in tropical regions. Fires are often started for agricultural reasons or to prepare new areas for farming. Last year was the hottest year on record, with extreme conditions including severe widespread drought fuelled by climate change and the El Nino climate phenomenon. Some countries, especially those in Latin America, experienced their worst drought on record in 2024. The report says these conditions made fires more intense and harder to control in many parts of the world. While some forests can recover from these blazes, the combined pressure of land conversion and a changing climate hinders that recovery. It also creates a feedback loop that raises the likelihood of future fires. Brazil, set to host the COP30 climate conference later this year, lost the largest areas of tropical forest in 2024, according to the data. In total, it accounted for 42 per cent of all tropical primary forest loss last year. Fires were fuelled by the worst drought on record for the country, causing 66 per cent of that loss. Other causes, such as farming for soy and cattle, rose by 13 per cent - still much lower than the peaks seen in the early 2000s. 'Brazil has made progress under President Lula - but the threat to forests remains,' says Mariana Oliveira, director of the forests and land use programme at WRI Brasil. 'Without sustained investment in community fire prevention, stronger state-level enforcement and a focus on sustainable land use, hard-won gains risk being undone. As Brazil prepares to host COP30, it has a powerful opportunity to put forest protection front and centre on the global stage.' Forest loss also skyrocketed by 200 per cent in Bolivia last year to a total of 1.5 million hectares. For the first time ever, it ranked in second place behind Brazil, overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - despite having less than half the forest area. Stasiek Czaplicki Cabezas, Bolivian researcher and data journalist for Revista Nomadas, says fires in 2024 'left deep scars', not just on the land but for those who depend on it. 'The damage could take centuries to undo.' Despite shifting down in the rankings, DRC saw the highest levels of primary forest loss on record, surging by 150 per cent compared to 2023. Fires, made worse by unusually hot and dry conditions, caused 45 per cent of the damage. Just like the Amazon, the Congo basin acts as a crucial carbon sink, but increasing fires and forest loss now threaten its vital function. Columbia too saw an almost 50 per cent increase in primary forest loss but fires weren't the primary cause. Instability from the breakdown of peace talks led to the growth of activities like illegal mining and coca production (the main ingredient in cocaine). The rise in forest loss extended well beyond the tropics in 2024, with a 5 per cent increase in the total loss of tree cover around the world compared to 2023. That is an additional 30 million hectares lost last year, an area roughly the size of Italy. An intense fire season in Russia and Canada was partially responsible for driving this increase. While forest fires are a part of the natural dynamics in these regions, they have been more intense and longer-lasting in recent years, giving tree cover less time to recover. Research has shown that these boreal forests are increasingly susceptible to drought and fires due to climate change, creating a feedback loop of worsening fires and carbon emissions. Last year was also the first time since Global Forest Watch began keeping records when fires raged across both the tropics and boreal forests. The report isn't all bad news, with some countries racking up wins in the face of a challenging year. In Indonesia, for example, primary forest loss fell by 11 per cent. Efforts under former President Joko Widodo to restore land and curb fires helped keep fire rates low, even amid widespread droughts. Arief Wijaya, managing director of WRI Indonesia, says that while deforestation remains a concern, they are proud that it was one of the few countries to reduce primary forest loss in 2024. 'We hope the current administration can keep the momentum going.' Malaysia too saw a 13 per cent decline and fell out of the top 10 countries for tropical primary forest loss for the first time. Leaders of over 140 countries signed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration in 2021, promising to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. To do this, the world needs to cut deforestation by 20 per cent every year starting immediately. But we are alarmingly off track to meet this commitment: Of the 20 countries with the largest area of primary forest, 17 have higher primary forest loss today than when the agreement was signed. Stronger fire prevention, provision for deforestation-free supply chains, enforcement of trade regulations and increased funding for forest protection are urgently needed, the report's authors say - especially through Indigenous-led initiatives. Mapping shows that one such initiative, Bolivia's newly established Charagua Lyambae protected area, kept fires at bay in 2024. Their investments in early warning systems and enforcement of land use policies helped prevent the spread while the forest burned around it for the second year in a row. A testament to what Indigenous-led fire prevention can do. 'Countries have repeatedly pledged to halt deforestation and forest degradation,' says Kelly Levin, chief scientist for data and systems change at the Bezos Earth Fund. 'Yet the data reveal a stark gap between promises made and progress delivered - alongside the growing impacts of a warming world. That should jolt us out of complacency.' Five Dutch companies form 'an extremely powerful oligopoly' that dominates European fishing, according to a new investigation into their use of marine resources and public funds. Nicknamed the 'Big Five' - Parlevliet & Van der Plas (P&P), Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family - generated €2.4 billion in revenue in 2023, according to the report from France-based NGO BLOOM. For the first time, the 'sprawling and opaque empire' of these fishing supermajors has been mapped. It claims that they have all been involved in major scandals - from illegal fishing in Peru to corruption in Namibia. "Thanks to a network of opaque subsidiaries, a fleet of technologically over-equipped vessels, and an aggressive takeover strategy, these multinationals reign over global fishing,' says Laetitia Bisiaux, head of the industrial fishing campaign at BLOOM. 'Behind a façade of competition, these companies cooperate closely: they join forces to crush the other players in the sector.' Through their network of 400 subsidiaries, BLOOM's report says the Big Five control nearly 230 vessels - including the world's largest fishing vessel, the 145-metre-long Annelies Ilena. It estimates their combined capacity at 260,000 tonnes, a sixth of the entire EU fishing fleet's gross tonnage. If you lined them all up, they would span 10 kilometres - a two-hour walking distance. The investigation, conducted with the Dutch consortium of investigative journalists Spit, reveals that most of the companies are vertically integrated. This means they control the entire production chain - from catch to plate, trawler to fish-and-chip shop - on a global scale. This enables them, it alleges, to buy fish from their own subsidiaries at artificially low prices to reduce the wages paid to crews (who are often paid a share of the catch) and to transfer profits to tax havens. And, BLOOM says, their outsized presence is giving them undue lobbying sway. Through international subsidiaries, the Big Five are members of at least fifteen lobbying organisations in the EU. The report adds that this 'poses serious problems to the smooth running of democracies through their influence over public decision-making.' First, a quick explainer. The EU sets fishing catch limits, which are then shared among countries through national fishing quotas. Fishing companies purchase these rights in the form of individual transferable fishing quotas (ITQs); they are their most significant assets, and can be sold among each other, used as collateral for loans, leased out to smaller companies, and used to speculate on the market. The Dutch, BLOOM says, were quick to understand and exploit these dynamics in the 1980s, buying up fishing rights and fleets in other countries when prices were low. Being first on the scene with large freezer-trawlers also enabled them to capitalise on the fact that fishing rights are often distributed on the basis of historical catches, creating a feedback loop of fish and wealth. The new report details how the Big Five work together in order to pool or exchange fishing quotas so they can operate more efficiently. They also jointly own subsidiaries and have shared ownership in some ships. After the Netherlands, these companies have invested the most capital in France. 24 industrial vessels holding a large proportion of French quotas operate under the French flag via their subsidiaries. The UK ranks third in terms of vessels owned by the Big Five (18), enabling them to maintain control of fishing areas and quotas despite Brexit. In terms of tonnage, Germany ranks second despite having only seven vessels, given their large size. A second BLOOM investigation, also released today, delves into the public subsidies granted to Dutch shipowners in the aftermath of Brexit. It finds that the Big Five received €53.2 million of the €135 million package intended to compensate struggling fishers for a loss of access to British waters. Furthermore, the main beneficiaries of these subsidiaries were trawlers equipped with electrodes for destructive electric fishing, and some trawlers which haven't actually been blocked by Brexit. The Annelies Ilena, co-owned by P&P and Alda Seafood while flying a Polish flag, catches 400 tonnes of fish a day, as much as 1,000 small-scale fishing boats bring in. It might be the biggest factory ship, but for BLOOM experts, it is emblematic of the wholesale industrialisation of the fishing sector. All but one of the Big Five's 230-strong fleet engages in the most destructive types of fishing: pelagic trawling, bottom trawling and demersal seining (pulling a net across the sea floor). These techniques are deployed in the English Channel, North Sea, West Africa, Indian Ocean, Pacific, and the Arctic. According to BLOOM, 'their industrial logic is based on gigantic vessels and massive extraction capacity, which is incompatible with the preservation of healthy marine ecosystems.' The report also claims the profit from this 'extractivist approach to wild resources' is now being transferred into real estate, including high-rise residential buildings. Fisheries economists fear that this could be a warning signal that, as a result of overfishing, the return on investments in the fishing industry is declining. Parlevliet & Van der Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family have been contacted for comment.
