Last year, fires destroyed vast areas of virgin rainforests on three continents roughly the size of Switzerland, as well as forests that were deliberately burned to allow livestock and produce crops for commercial purposes.
In its annual report, Global Forest Watch said, based on satellite data, that Brazil suffered more than a third of the losses, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia came in second and third.
The fires in 2019 destroyed 38,000 square kilometers, the equivalent of a football field of ancient trees every six seconds, making it the third most years of destruction of virgin forests, since scientists began to track their decline two decades ago.
"We are concerned that the rate of loss has been very high, despite all the efforts that countries and companies are making to reduce deforestation," said Michaela Weise, project director at Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute.
The total area of tropical forests that came up with fire and bulldozers around the world last year was three times higher, but the pristine rainforest, as it was known, was very important.
It is characterized by having the richest wild life on Earth in terms of diversity, and maintains reservoirs of carbon in its logs. When the fire ignites, this carbon is released into the atmosphere, causing climate warming.
"We will need decades or even centuries for these forests to return to where they were," Weisse said, assuming that the lands are not encroached upon.
The forest fires that swept through parts of Brazil last year made the headlines, as the climate crisis occupied an important area of public concern.
But it was not the main reason for Brazil's loss of indigenous forests, the data showed.
Satellite imagery has revealed many new "hot spots" to destroy forests. In the state of Pará, for example, the fires are parallel to reports of illegal land grabs within the Trenchira / Pakaga Indigenous Reserve.
This was before the government of President Javier Bolsonaro proposed a law that would ease restrictions in these protected areas on commercial mining, oil and gas extraction and agriculture on a large scale, which could make such infringements more common.
"This is unfair to people who have lived in the rainforests in Brazil for successive generations, and it also demonstrates mismanagement of these areas," said Francis Seymour, of the World Research Institute.
"We know that deforestation is less in indigenous areas," she added. And she continued, "a growing body of evidence indicates that legal recognition of indigenous land rights provides greater protection for forests."
Corona makes matters worse
The "Covid 19" epidemic only makes matters worse, not only in Brazil, which has been severely affected by the virus, but also in any place that is depleting the already limited potential of countries with tropical forests.
Reports indicated that the rise in illegal logging, mining, poaching and other forest crimes is flowing from all over the world.
Neighboring Bolivia saw an unprecedented loss of forest cover in 2019 due to fires, both within indigenous forests and in surrounding forests.