PARIS, France (AFP) — The world has lost nearly 100 million hectares of forests in two decades, marking a steady decline though at a slower pace than before, a UN agency reported Tuesday. The proportion of forest to total land area fell from 31.9 percent in 2000 to 31.2 percent in 2020, now some 4.1 billion hectares, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. It marks “a net loss of almost 100 million hectares of […]
Tag: forests
Football pitch of rainforest destroyed every six seconds
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Vast tracts of pristine rainforest on three continents went up in smoke last year, with an area roughly the size of Switzerland cut down or burned to make way for cattle and commercial crops, researchers said Tuesday. Brazil accounted for more than a third of the loss, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia a distant second and third, Global Forest Watch said in its […]
Scientists warn of ‘zombie fires’ in the Arctic
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Dormant “zombie fires” scattered across the Arctic region — remnants of record blazes last year — may be coming to life after an unusually warm and dry Spring, scientists warned Wednesday. “We have seen satellite observations of active fires that hint that ‘zombie’ fires might have reignited,” said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist and wildfire expert at the European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service. The hotspots, which […]
Seeds of hope: Young volunteers replant Tunisia forests
by Caroline Nelly Perrot Agence France-Presse SILIANA, Tunisia (AFP) – Around 40 young Tunisian volunteers gather on a bare hill in the central region of Siliana. Their weekend mission — revive a burned forest by planting Aleppo pine shoots. Hamdi, from the eastern city of Sfax, gets straight to work after travelling 250 kilometres (150 miles) to the marginalised region. A camping and hiking enthusiast, he found out about the initiative on Facebook. “It’s […]
Siberia forest fires spark potential ‘disaster’ for Arctic
by Maria PANINA MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Gigantic forest fires have regularly raged through the vast expanses of Russia’s Siberia, but the magnitude of this year’s blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of a long-term impact on the environment. As fires sweep across millions of hectares enveloping entire cities in black smoke and noxious fumes, environmentalists warn of a disaster threatening to accelerate the melting of the Arctic. More than 3.2 million hectares […]
Tropical forest the size of England destroyed in 2018: report
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Last year humanity destroyed an expanse of tropical forest nearly the size of England, the third largest decline since global satellite data become available in 2001, researchers reported Thursday. The pace of the loss is staggering — the equivalent of 30 football fields disappearing every minute of every day, or 12 million hectares a year. Almost a third of that area, some 36,000 square […]
Earth’s intact forests vanishing at accelerating pace: scientists
by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Earth’s intact forests shrank by an area larger than Austria every year from 2014 to 2016 at a 20 percent faster rate than during the previous decade, scientists said Wednesday as the UN unveiled an initiative to harness the “untapped potential” of the land sector to fight climate change. Despite a decades-long effort to halt deforestation, nearly 10 percent of undisturbed forests have been fragmented, […]
Hope for the Philippine Eagle and the Forests
As the environment month of June comes to a close, the Haribon Foundation enjoins the whole country and the international community in celebrating the discovery and validation of the presence of a pair of adult Philippine Eagles and one juvenile in Mt. Mingan straddling the provinces of Nueva Ecija and the inclusion of the Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wild life Sanctuary on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage List. These two […]





