Africa losing large portions of vital forest study

Africa experienced a significant decline in tree cover last year, amounting to around 3.6 million hectares (14,000 square miles), recent data has shown.

According to the study by the University of Maryland, which is available on the World Resource Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform, around 800,000 hectares (3,000 square miles) of this comprised primary or old-growth tropical forests.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where primary forest loss remains persistently high, accounted for the majority of the decline. The country is said to have lost over half a million hectares in 2022 as a result of agricultural expansion into primary forest areas in response to rising food demand.

While losses in countries such as Angola and Cameroon have accelerated, Ghana has experienced a dramatic increase in tropical…