Deforestation wiped out 8% of Amazon in 18 years − study

Deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain from 2000 to 2018, wiping out eight percent of the world's biggest rainforest, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The Amazon plays a vital role in curbing climate change, but destruction of the rainforest has only accelerated in recent years, found the study by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network (RAISG).

Since the turn of the millennium, 513,000 square kilometres of the rainforest have been lost, according to the updated Amazon atlas produced by the organisation, a consortium of groups from across the region.

It is RAISG’s first such atlas since 2012.

The consortium found that after hitting a high of 49,240 square kilometres of forest loss in 2003 − a record for this century − deforestation eased to a low of 17,674 square kilometres in 2010.

However, the destruction has since surged to startling levels.

“The Amazon is far more threatened than it was eight years ago,” RAISG said in a statement.

“Deforestation has accelerated since 2012. The annual area lost tripled from 2015 to 2018,” the study found.

“In 2018 alone, 31,269 square kilometres of forest were destroyed across the...