By Oliver Griffin
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia has lost 86,985 hectares (214,944 acres) of Amazon jungle in the first nine months of the year while fires burned through swathes of felled areas, a local advocacy group said on Monday.
The deforestation was concentrated in 11 areas across five of the country’s provinces – Meta, Caqueta, Putumayo, Guaviare and Antioquia, the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development said in a report.
In September, Colombia’s Environment Ministry reported that deforestation in its Amazon region rose to 52,460 hectares in the first half of the year and could finish 2022 with an 11% increase from last year.
In 2021, 174,103 hectares were lost, up 1.5% on the previous year. About two-thirds was recorded in the country’s Amazon.
Preservation of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is considered vital to curbing catastrophic climate change, because of the vast amount of greenhouse gas it absorbs.
From January through September, Colombia recorded 107,823 alerts regarding fires in forests, equivalent to 359 fires a day and up 30% on the same period in 2021, the report said.
This was despite the La Nina weather phenomenon bringing wetter, inclement weather to the Andean country, it added. La Nina occurs when sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean cool below normal levels, usually leading to increased rainfall in Colombia.
The Environment Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, who was sworn in after President Gustavo Petro took control of the country in August, told Reuters earlier this year that fighting deforestation would be a priority for the new leftist government.
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Richard Chang)
