Many countries to lose forest wildland in the next 15-20 years, says Peter Patapov

PARIS: Earth's dense forests shrank annually by 90,000 square kilometres (an area of the size of Austria) from 2014 to 2016, which is 20 percent faster compared to the previous 13 years, according to information presented at a conference in Oxford this week.

Despite UN-led efforts to halt deforestation, nearly ten percent of undisturbed forests have been fragmented, degraded or simply chopped down since 2000, according to the analysis of satellite imagery.

Average daily loss over the first 17 years of this century was more than 200 sq km (75 sq miles). "Degradation of intact forest represents a global tragedy, as we are systematically destroying a crucial foundation of climate stability, Forests are the only safe, natural, proven and affordable infrastructure we have for capturing and storing carbon." said Frances Seymour, a senior distinguished fellow at the World Resources Institute, and a contributor to the research.

The last forest frontiers also play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity, weather stability, clean air, and water quality.

Around 500 million people of the planet depend directly on forests for their livelihood.

So-called "intact forest landscapes" which can include wetlands and natural grass pastures are defined as areas of at least 500 sq km (200 sq miles) with no described evidence in satellite images of large-scale human use. Concretely, that means no roads, industrial agriculture, mines, railways, canals or transmission lines.

As of January 2017, there were about 11.6 million sq km (4.5 million sq miles) of forests worldwide that still fit these criteria. "Many countries may lose all their forest wildlands in the next 15 to 20 years,” Peter Potapov, an associate professor at the University of Maryland and lead scientist for the research, told AFP.

“On current trends, intact forests will disappear by 2030 in Paraguay, Laos and Equatorial Guinea, and by 2040 in the Central African Republic, Nicaragua, Myanmar, Cambodia and Angola. There could come a point in the future where no areas in the world qualify as 'intact' anymore,” said Tom Evans, director for forest conservation and climate mitigation at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

In tropical countries, the main reason of virgin forest loss are conversion to agriculture and logging. In Canada and the United States, fire plays the part while in Russia and Australia, the destruction has been driven by fires, mining and energy extraction.

The new results which have been reported are based on a worldwide analysis of the satellite imagery, built on a study first done in the year 2008 and repeated in 2013.

"The high resolution data, like the one collected by the Landsat programme, allows us to detect human-caused alteration and fragmentation of forest wildlands," said Potapov.

Addressing his colleagues from around the world, Potapov also challenged the importance and the effect of a global voluntary certification system.

But approximately half of all intact forest landscapes inside FSC-certified concessions are not found from 2000 to 2016 in Gabon and the Republic of Congo, the new data was presented.

In Cameroon, about 90 percent of FSC-monitored forest wildlands disappeared. "FSC is an effective mechanism to fragment and degrade remaining intact forest landscapes, not a tool for their protection," Potapov said.

National and regional parks have helped to slow the rate of decline. The chances of forest loss was found to be three times higher outside protected areas than inside them, the researchers reported.