Africa has become in the past ten years, the focal point of the global forest losses. It experts from the UN Agricultural Agency, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) in a on Tuesday in Rome pre-set special evaluation of the state of the forest report 2020. Africa was overhauled in the annual area of deforestation in South America. As the main reasons of deforestation on the African continent, the experts called the high growth of the population and the need for small farmers to secure their livelihoods. “More than 90 percent of the deforestation takes place in the tropics”, – stated in the evaluation.
In Africa had gone in the past decade, an annual average of about 3.9 million hectares of forest area lost. In South America, the loss amounted to 2.6 million hectares per year. Between the years 2000 and 2010, the deforestation area of forest located in South America, is still about twice as high. The decline had been achieved, especially in Brazil, in particular, between 2010 and 2015. Under Brazil’s President, since the beginning of 2019, the country, increased deforestation in the Amazon region strong again. Other countries in South America would curb deforestation.
On the African continent, the deforestation intensified the spread of the Sahara to the South. For years, among others by the UN, the EU and the world Bank supported Initiative with the name “Great Green Wall is fighting against it”. The “green wall of Africa” to extend from the Senegal on the Atlantic ocean to Djibouti on the Indian ocean to a width of 15 kilometers.