Tropical forests continued to disappear at a "stubbornly" high rate last year, putting the global goal of ending deforestation "far away" by 2030, new research shows. According to an analysis by Global Forest Watch, the equivalent of ten football pitches of tropical rainforest – 3.7 million hectares – will be lost every minute in 2023 due to human activity and natural disasters.

While deforestation slowed dramatically in Brazil and Colombia, it was offset by sharp increases in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Laos.

"The world took two steps forward, two steps back in terms of forest loss last year," said Mikaela Weisse, director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute (WRI). (Matteo Civillini, more at climatechangenews.com)