Forest destruction around roads fuelled a “sharp spike” in tree loss in Brazil’s western Amazon rainforest, with the rate of losses unrelated to fires up more than 25 per cent in some areas, researchers have found.
“It’s not necessarily a new phenomenon to see forest loss happening around roads,” said Mikaela Weisse, deputy director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute, which released the data. “What’s new this year, or intensified, is the rate of that loss.”
Western Brazil was particularly badly hit, the researchers found in their annual stocktake. New “hotspots” appeared in the more accessible areas of woodland surrounding roads, which were probably being cleared for cattle pastures, they said.
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