43 According to calculations by the environmental organization WWF, millions of hectares of tropical rainforest are in 24 particularly badly affected areas have been destroyed. The WWF announced on Wednesday in Berlin that this is based on satellite data from 2004 to 2017. The largest loss occurs in the Amazon region in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Guyana with 18 3 million hectares. To classify: The area of ​​Germany is more than 35, 7 million hectares.

The WWF emphasized that consumers in Germany were also partly to blame for the deforestation. “For the cultivation of feed soy, cocoa and beef, which is imported into the EU, forests are often destroyed. Around a sixth of all food traded in the EU contributes to deforestation in the tropics,” the press release said. “Instead of just pointing the finger at governments and farmers in deforestation hotspots, we also have to touch our own noses,” said the forest program manager at WWF Germany, Susanne Winter, according to the information.

Stop deforestation She further explained that rainforests are a health precaution for humans and nature. For example, they store carbon and are an important habitat for animal and plant species. “We urgently have to stop deforestation, otherwise life as we know it will stop”, Winter was quoted as saying.

According to the information, the so-called deforestation hotspots also include forests on Borneo (Indonesia, Malaysia) , in Paraguay, Argentina, Madagascar and Sumatra. Almost half of the remaining forests in such hotspots are also severely fragmented, for example by roads or arable land. “This makes the forest more prone to drought and fire and drives out the animal species living there.”

(olb)