Good news for the planet: 36 countries in the world recorded more trees in 2020 than they had in 2000. The data is from recent research by the University of Maryland and the NGO World Resources Institute, which revealed not only the nations that have become greener, but also those that have lost trees.

In the 21st century alone, the planet has already lost more than 100 million hectares of forested areas; a size 2.5 times larger than California. Among the countries that had positive results in data analysis, the highlights are the United Kingdom, Ukraine, China, India, Denmark, Ireland and Uruguay. The study also concluded that Asia and South America have the largest forest tracts (33% and 21%, respectively), while Europe and Oceania have the smallest (only 9% and 4%).

The data also does not mean that forest growth in these countries was significant. Only 17 of them in the world had an increase of more than 1%, compared to the 60 countries that lost the same percentage. Brazil tops the list of countries with the largest area of lost forest since 2000, followed by Canada, Congo and Paraguay. The explanation is the legal and illegal increase of agricultural borders in Amazonian regions.

The research was based on data from the year 2020 for practical reasons: satellite mapping technology can only capture information about trees over 5 meters high. Therefore, trees recently planted at the time of the study did not appear in the results, such as those of the AFR100 initiative, which proposes to restore more than 100 million hectares of forest in Africa by the end of the decade. It is estimated that, on average, planted trees take more than 10 years to reach the size noticeable by satellite.

Now the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute are moving on to a new project together: finding out how much CO2 these trees are actually capturing and helping clean up pollution in the atmosphere.

Source: Um só Planeta