Peruvian Amazonian rainforest devastated by illegal gold mining. EPA=Yonhap News
Two-thirds of the rainforests are being destroyed in the’natural buffer zone’ that prevents climate change, a study found that a major crisis in the ecosystem is expected.
According to Reuters and CBS broadcasting on the 9th (local time), the Norwegian Rainforest Association (RFN) reported that the rainforest status study conducted from 2002 to 2019, covering an area of 14.5 million ㎢ covering about 13% of the earth’s surface. It said that only 36% of the rainforest, or a third, remained.
The report explained that of 64% of damaged rainforests, 34% have completely disappeared and 30% are devastated, and the combined area of the two amounts to about 9.5 million km2.
70% of the Earth’s rainforest is distributed in South America such as Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Papua New Guinea in Asia, and Democratic Congo in Africa.
RFN explains that the total size of the rainforests that have disappeared in the 17 years since 2002 is larger than that of French territory.
Report author Anners Krogg said, “Human is cutting trees and dividing thicker forests into smaller and smaller pieces.” “It undermines the ability of rainforests to store carbon, cool the planet, make it rain, and provide habitat. There is” he explained. “It’s good news that the rainforest half the size of continental Europe is being maintained, but the rest is either completely damaged or increasingly being destroyed,” he said.
Krog pointed out that’human consumption’ has led to this. He warned that “the ecosystem is suffering from constant and persistent abuse because of human endless desire for land and resources.”
The researchers explained that during the last half century, among human activities, such as ▶ energy use ▶ international trade ▶ soybean and palm oil cultivation ▶ livestock and mining industries, etc., have been the biggest threat to the rainforest. In particular, the US is highly dependent on forest-derived products such as palm oil, rubber and cocoa, and the raw materials for these products are often cultivated on illegally harvested land.
“Deforestation may call another infectious disease pandemic”
The researchers also added that the world should make rainforest conservation a top priority as it suffered from a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) pandemic. “The loss of rainforest could put the world at risk of an infectious disease pandemic again,” said Krogg. “Deforestation will undermine nature’s innate viral protection and push the world at risk of the emergence of new pathogens that animals transfer to humans.” Pointed out.
“We hope that the United Nations will come up with concrete measures to preserve the unspoilt rainforest at upcoming climate and biodiversity conferences,” Krog said.
Reporter Han Young-hye [email protected]
