On Earth, 7% of mountain forests have disappeared since the beginning of the century: scientists have named the reasons
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Scientists have found that over the past two decades, 78 million hectares of mountain forests have been lost around the world, which is more than 7%. The main harmful factors are logging, agricultural expansion and forest fires. The relevant study was published in One Earth magazine, The Guardian reports. “Our global analysis of mountain forest loss revealed an alarming acceleration over the past two decades,” the scientists write. Mountains are home to over 85% of the world’s birds, mammals and amphibians. Mountainous environments were once more protected than plains because people had less access to them due to the specific topography. Currently, mountain forests are under increasing threat as people develop hard-to-reach areas of the planet. Read also: The authorities plan to increase the volume of forest felling. And this is very alarming Photo: martinsvanags/Depositphotos Researchers led by scientists from the University of Leeds in Great Britain and the Southern University of Science and Technology in China tracked changes in forests from 2001 to 2018. They documented increases and decreases in tree cover and studied possible impacts on biodiversity. “We found that 78 million hectares of mountain forests were lost between 2001 and 2018, and annual losses have accelerated significantly. And recent losses are 2.7 times greater than at the beginning of the century,” the team says. Scientists found that logging is responsible for 42% of mountain forest loss, forest fires for 29%, slash-and-burn agriculture for 15%, and semi-permanent or permanent agriculture for 10% of the loss. Asia, South America, Africa, Europe and Australia have suffered the most from the loss of mountain forests. A significant part of the losses in the north of Asia was caused by forest fires, in particular in the Russian Federation. Droughts and forest fires have led to significant losses in Australia: last year, fire destroyed 60 thousand hectares of forest, and in 2020, about 1.25 billion animals died due to large-scale fires in the country. “Our results indicate that protected areas within mountain centers have lower rates of loss than their surroundings. Increasing the area of protected areas in mountains should become a key factor for preserving mountain forests and biodiversity in the future,” the scientists add. We will remind you that Greenpeace is sounding the alarm, because environmentalists discovered that 4 hectares of Carpathian forests are cut down every hour in eight countries. Read also: Why do Ukrainians love the forest? Poll
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