London, Europe Brief News- A new report by Global Forest Watch revealed that the Earth lost more than 97,000 square miles of forest in 2021, equivalent to the land area of the United Kingdom.
The losses work out to 10 football pitches worth of forest destroyed per minute.
The rate of deforestation last year was about the same as it was in 2020, which saw a rapid increase from 2019.
14,500 square miles of old-growth tropical rainforest were lost in 2021, which led to the release of 2.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions of India — researchers said.
Preserving old-growth tropical rainforests is particularly important for protecting biodiversity and reducing global carbon emissions.
More than 4.7 million acres of rainforests were destroyed in Brazil, where trees are often cleared for cattle farming or mining.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo lost 1.2 million acres of tropical primary rainforest, and Bolivia lost 740,000 acres.
More than 31,000 square miles of boreal forests were lost in northern Canada, Russia, and Alaska, much of it due to forest fires in Russia.
Analysts say their rapid destruction is putting global climate targets at risk.
The loss was largely caused by human destruction, notably land clearing for cattle and crops.
The majority of that loss was due to record fires in Russia, driven by hotter and drier conditions that are likely linked to climate change, the report said.
