Dqwn/ANN

THAT Earth’s ecosystems are in a race against time is well known. New data from the non-profit Rainforest Foundation Norway gives an alarming picture of the rate of their destruction as ecosystems that act as a buffer against the drastic impact of climate change rapidly disappear. Other reports too have rung the alarm, warning that rainforest cover equal to a football field is lost every six seconds; two-thirds of the world’s original rainforest cover has already been destroyed, with 34pc of old tropical forests having been cleared to make way for agricultural practices. Another 30pc have been degraded to a dangerous extent. Man feeds off nature. But the level of destruction involved in this parasitic relationship has been catastrophic: the annual rate of rainforest depletion only in 2019, matched the level of destruction over the past 20 years. In fact, the total loss of rainforest cover between 2002 and 2019 was greater than the area of France. The biggest impact has been felt in Brazil, which has witnessed a sharp uptick in the depletion of its forested land as a result of the country’s lax policies towards the environment.

Pakistan may not contain rainforests. However, it is home to a variety of other forests from the mangroves in the south to the pine forests in the north. Unfortunately, it is also among the top 10 countries that are most vulnerable to the impact of global warming and climate change — and it has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. Despite the current government’s strong emphasis on the environment and the billion-tree tsunami project, the timber mafia’s activities that destroy delicate ecosystems have yet to be curtailed. Keeping in mind that the UN has declared 2021-2030 to be the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, a sincere and consistent effort is required by the world at large to take steps to preserve forests so that we can be facilitated in putting in place measures to reduce the impact of climate change.