Amazon Region Lost 10,000 Sq Km Of Forest In A Year: WWF

From August 2020 to July 2021, 10,476 square kilometers of forest were lost in the Amazon, according to the environmental organization Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Photo Insert: The Amazon is one of the largest carbon reserves of the planet.

The WWF estimate, relying on data from the Amazon research institute Imazon in the Brazilian city of Belem, was made public on Sunday as the country celebrates Amazon Day, remembering the establishment of the Amazon province in 1850.

The Amazon region has been experiencing its worst levels of deforestation and forest fires in years. In addition, large parts of Brazil are currently experiencing water shortages and drought.

"If we lose the Amazon, we lose one of the largest carbon reservoirs of this planet," said Dirk Embert, South America expert at WWF Germany, referring to the tipping point at which the area turns into a steppe.

Critics accuse right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, in office since January 1, 2019, of creating an atmosphere in which farmers feel increasingly encouraged to seize land for agricultural use.

The Amazon stretches across nine countries in South America and a distance as great as that from Berlin to Baghdad. Indigenous groups from South America insisted at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille that 80 percent of the region should be placed under protection by 2025.

They also want to manage the new protected areas themselves.

Scientific studies from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have recently shown that Indigenous groups are the best guardians of the forest when fighting environmental damage and climate change.

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