<p>Deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain from 2000 to 2018, wiping out eight percent of the world's largest rainforest, according to a study released Tuesday.</p>.<p>The Amazon plays a vital role in curbing climate change, but destruction of the rainforest has only accelerated in recent years, found the study by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network (RAISG).</p>.<p>Since the turn of the millennium, 513,016 square kilometers (198,077 square miles) of the rainforest have been lost, according to the updated Amazon atlas produced by the organization, a consortium of groups from across the region.</p>.<p>It is RAISG's first such atlas since 2012.</p>.<p>"The Amazon is far more threatened than it was eight years ago," RAISG said in a statement.</p>.<p>The consortium found that after making gains against deforestation early in the century, the Amazon region has again slipped into a worrying cycle of destruction.</p>.<p>Deforestation hit a high of 49,240 square kilometers of forest loss in 2003 -- a record for this century -- then eased to a low of 17,674 square kilometers in 2010, the report said.</p>.<p>But the destruction has since surged to startling levels.</p>.<p>"Deforestation has accelerated since 2012. The annual area lost tripled from 2015 to 2018," the study found.</p>.<p>"In 2018 alone, 31,269 square kilometers of forest were destroyed across the Amazon region, the worst annual deforestation since 2003."</p>.<p>The destruction is fueled by logging, farming, ranching, mining and infrastructure projects on formerly pristine forest land.</p>.<p>"The statistics presented by RAISG are an alarm bell on the increasing pressures and threats facing the region," said researcher Julia Jacomini of the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), a Brazilian environmental group that is part of RAISG.</p>.<p>The atlas "shows the importance of building an alliance of Amazon countries, which is non-existent at the moment, to fight those growing pressures and threats," she told AFP.</p>.<p>The report comes as world leaders prepare for a virtual summit this weekend aimed at breathing new life into the 2015 Paris climate accord, whose goals on slowing the warming of the planet are currently set to be missed.</p>.<p>Forests such as the Amazon play a vital role in controlling climate change because they absorb carbon from the atmosphere.</p>.<p>However, when their trees die or burn, they release carbon back into the environment.</p>.<p>The Amazon stretches across eight South American countries -- Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname and Guyana -- and the territory of French Guiana.</p>.<p>Brazil, which holds most of the Amazon -- about 62 percent -- is also responsible for the worst deforestation, the study found: 425,051 square kilometers from 2000 to 2018.</p>.<p>The destruction in Brazil has only accelerated since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019.</p>.<p>Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged to a 12-year high of 11,088 square kilometers from August 2019 to July 2020, according to government figures.</p>.<p>That was a 9.5-percent increase from the previous year, when deforestation also hit a more than decade-long high.</p>.<p>Bolsonaro has come under fire from environmentalists and the international community for cutting funding for rainforest protection programs and pushing to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining.</p>.<p>He has presided over a surge in wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon since taking office.</p>.<p>There were more than 89,000 of them last year, at one point sending a thick haze of black smoke all the way to Sao Paulo, thousands of kilometers away, and causing worldwide alarm over the future of the rainforest.</p>.<p>There have been even more fires so far this year: 101,434 and counting.</p>.<p>Experts say the fires are largely caused by farmers and ranchers bulldozing and burning trees to clear land for agriculture -- an illegal but widespread practice.</p>.<p>Deforestation is also surging in Bolivia and Colombia, RAISG found.</p>.<p>Bolivia lost 27 percent of its Amazon forest cover to fires from 2000 to 2018, it said.</p>
<p>Deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain from 2000 to 2018, wiping out eight percent of the world's largest rainforest, according to a study released Tuesday.</p>.<p>The Amazon plays a vital role in curbing climate change, but destruction of the rainforest has only accelerated in recent years, found the study by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network (RAISG).</p>.<p>Since the turn of the millennium, 513,016 square kilometers (198,077 square miles) of the rainforest have been lost, according to the updated Amazon atlas produced by the organization, a consortium of groups from across the region.</p>.<p>It is RAISG's first such atlas since 2012.</p>.<p>"The Amazon is far more threatened than it was eight years ago," RAISG said in a statement.</p>.<p>The consortium found that after making gains against deforestation early in the century, the Amazon region has again slipped into a worrying cycle of destruction.</p>.<p>Deforestation hit a high of 49,240 square kilometers of forest loss in 2003 -- a record for this century -- then eased to a low of 17,674 square kilometers in 2010, the report said.</p>.<p>But the destruction has since surged to startling levels.</p>.<p>"Deforestation has accelerated since 2012. The annual area lost tripled from 2015 to 2018," the study found.</p>.<p>"In 2018 alone, 31,269 square kilometers of forest were destroyed across the Amazon region, the worst annual deforestation since 2003."</p>.<p>The destruction is fueled by logging, farming, ranching, mining and infrastructure projects on formerly pristine forest land.</p>.<p>"The statistics presented by RAISG are an alarm bell on the increasing pressures and threats facing the region," said researcher Julia Jacomini of the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), a Brazilian environmental group that is part of RAISG.</p>.<p>The atlas "shows the importance of building an alliance of Amazon countries, which is non-existent at the moment, to fight those growing pressures and threats," she told AFP.</p>.<p>The report comes as world leaders prepare for a virtual summit this weekend aimed at breathing new life into the 2015 Paris climate accord, whose goals on slowing the warming of the planet are currently set to be missed.</p>.<p>Forests such as the Amazon play a vital role in controlling climate change because they absorb carbon from the atmosphere.</p>.<p>However, when their trees die or burn, they release carbon back into the environment.</p>.<p>The Amazon stretches across eight South American countries -- Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname and Guyana -- and the territory of French Guiana.</p>.<p>Brazil, which holds most of the Amazon -- about 62 percent -- is also responsible for the worst deforestation, the study found: 425,051 square kilometers from 2000 to 2018.</p>.<p>The destruction in Brazil has only accelerated since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019.</p>.<p>Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged to a 12-year high of 11,088 square kilometers from August 2019 to July 2020, according to government figures.</p>.<p>That was a 9.5-percent increase from the previous year, when deforestation also hit a more than decade-long high.</p>.<p>Bolsonaro has come under fire from environmentalists and the international community for cutting funding for rainforest protection programs and pushing to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining.</p>.<p>He has presided over a surge in wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon since taking office.</p>.<p>There were more than 89,000 of them last year, at one point sending a thick haze of black smoke all the way to Sao Paulo, thousands of kilometers away, and causing worldwide alarm over the future of the rainforest.</p>.<p>There have been even more fires so far this year: 101,434 and counting.</p>.<p>Experts say the fires are largely caused by farmers and ranchers bulldozing and burning trees to clear land for agriculture -- an illegal but widespread practice.</p>.<p>Deforestation is also surging in Bolivia and Colombia, RAISG found.</p>.<p>Bolivia lost 27 percent of its Amazon forest cover to fires from 2000 to 2018, it said.</p>