Destruction Of Rainforests Up By 150% Worldwide In March Amid COVID-19 Pandemic - WWF

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2020) The destruction of tropical forests in 18 of the world's countries increased by an average of 150 percent in March against the background of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Germany said in its analysis on Thursday.

According to the analysis, in March this year alone, about 645,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) of rainforest were destroyed. The greatest losses were observed in Indonesia, with about 130,000 hectares of logged rainforest, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo with about 100,000 hectares and Brazil with 95,000 hectares. The WWF used satellite data for its analysis and the data for deforestation in March was compared with figures for the same month in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Director of the Conservation Department at WWF Germany Christoph Heinrich said that the current situation was linked to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many governments halted activities on rainforest protection amid global lockdowns, leading to the looting of resources.

The WWF also noted that the territories in which indigenous peoples reside and protected areas had also become easy targets for criminals in many countries. Local police and other regulatory officials are much less present on the ground due to the pandemic. The situation has also been aggravated by the fact that legal timber trade has significantly declined due to the shutdown of ports.