The World Lost a Belgium-sized Area of Primary Rainforests Last Year ...

The tropics lost 12 million hectares of tree cover in 2018, the fourth-highest annual loss since record-keeping began in 2001. Of greatest concern is the disappearance of 3.6 million hectares of primary rainforest, an area the size of Belgium. The fgures come from updated data from the University of Maryland, released today on Global Forest Watch. Old growth, or “primary” tropical rainforests are a crucially important forest ecosystem, containing trees that can be hundreds or even thousands of years old. They store more carbon than other forests and are irreplaceable when it comes to sustainin... Mehr ...