Explained | Global tropical primary forest cover continued decline in 2022: study Premium

Primary tropical forest cover continued to decrease at an alarming rate in 2022, making the goal of net zero deforestation by 2030 even more unattainable.

The story so far: Tropical areas lost 4.1 million hectares of forest cover – equivalent to losing an area of 11 football fields per minute – in 2022, new research quoted by the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch has said. This forest loss produced 2.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which is around the same as India’s annual emissions due to the combustion of fossil fuels.

According to the University of Maryland, primary forest cover loss in tropical areas in 2022 was 10% more than in 2021.

Primary forests are mature, natural forests that have remained undisturbed in recent history. They often store more carbon than other forests and are rich sources of biodiversity. Primary forest loss is almost irreversible in nature: even if the green cover regrows, a secondary forest is unlikely to match the extent of biodiversity and carbon sequestering capabilities of a primary forest.

The world is not on track to meet most of its forest-related commitments. WRI measures progress on two goals – ending deforestation by 2030, and restoring 350 million hectares (Mha) of lost and degraded forests by 2030 – that represent multiple global forest pledges.

We need to reduce global deforestation by at least 10% every year to meet the 2030 target. In 2022, although the global deforestation rate was 3.1% lower than the baseline from 2018-2020, it was still over one million hectares above the level needed. This puts the world off track to meet the 2030 goal.

To meet the target of restoring 350 Mha of forests globally by 2030, the world needs to increase tree cover by 22 Mha per year, between 2021 and 2030. Despite registering some gains, the overall change in tree cover in the last 20 years was a net loss of 100 Mha. This means that we are still losing forests and not restoring them at the required rate.

Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the two countries with the most tropical forest cover, and both registered losses of this resource in 2022. Ghana and Bolivia also rapidly lost their primary forest cover. On the other hand, Indonesia and Malaysia managed to keep their primary forest cover loss to record-low levels in 2022.