State of the tropical rainforest The complete overview of the tropical rainforest, past and present. STATE OF THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST 1 ( Deforestation 2019 35 523 km2 (Larger than the Netherlands) Rainforest Foundation Norway is one of the world’s leading organisations in the field of rights-based rainforest protection. We are working for a world where the environment is protected and human rights are fulfilled. Rainforest Foundation Norway Mariboes gate 8, 0183 OSLO, Norway Telephone: +47 23 10 95 00 E-mail: [email protected] www.rainforest.no/en State of the tropical rainforest Author: Anders Krogh Rainforest Foundation Norway: [email protected] Cover photo: Alexis Huguet/Rainforest Foundation Norway Graphic Design: Anna Maria H. Pirolt / brodogtekst.no 2 RAINFOREST FOUNDATION NORWAY 2021 Introduction This report is the first in the world of It provides a wide range of invaluable • One third of the original tropical its kind. Granted, there has been ecosystem services for all life on Earth. rainforest is gone. scattered research on the state and Yet available data on the state of this • One third of the original tropical extension of the tropical rainforest. particular tropical forest type has been rainforest is degraded. However, that research has often surprisingly inadequate. Along with a • One third of the original tropical applied varying methodologies and scarcity of global biome specific forest rainforest is still intact. they are not always comparable, nor data, misconceptions about tropical do they necessary present the latest rainforests flourish. This confuses There are both positive and alarming data or use the same reference year. the public discourse on tropical angles to take from these simple This has made it impossible to rainforest, and at worst it could facts. It’s positive that we have not monitor the global state and historical mislead policy makers and policy cleared half of the world’s tropical development of the tropical rainfor- influencers about the true state of rainforest, a common statement est in an easy and reliable manner. this unique ecosystem. found on various credible web sites. It’s alarming that only one third is left Why is this important? Simply put The world cannot afford that. We need intact given that degraded forests because the tropical rainforest is the debate over how to save the rest often struggle to sustain themselves. arguably the most important of the tropical rainforests to be founded terrestrial ecosystem on the planet. on reliable data on the condition of This report is the first complete these forests. “One third” is a key overview of the state of the world’s takeaway from this report: tropical rainforest at present and in a historical perspective. It aims to fill a critical knowledge gap in the effort to preserve these invaluable forests for future generations. Original 2019 2016 Tropical rainforest cover Tropical rainforest cover Intact tropical rainforest 1 (all forest intact) 9 538 022 km2 5 247 415 km2 14 580 513 km2 34 % Total deforestation 64 % 5 042 491 km2 Total deforestation and degradation 9 333 098 km2 45 % Intact tropical rainforest Degraded tropical rainforest 5 247 415 km2 4 290 607 km2 55 % Current rainforest cover (2019) *All figures are referring to canopy cover of 30 % or more. See method chapter at page 22 for more details. STATE OF THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST 3 The tropical rainforest Photo: Thomas Marent The tropical rainforest is a unique able to slow the human caused Defining tropical rainforests ecosystem in particularly three warming of Earth’s oceans and significant ways: atmosphere. Precipitation • It covers only 6,5 % of the Earth’s • It cools the air and creates There is no straightforward definition terrestrial surface, yet holds more evaporation more effectively than of a tropical rainforest. In terms of than half of the world’s biological open water. It creates what has precipitation, some can receive more diversity.2 No other ecosystem on been termed the “biotic pump”, than 9 meters of rainfall annually, Earth can match the biological which secures rainfall thousands with little seasonal differences, like diversity of this forest. of kilometres inland from the the Choco-Darien rainforest along • It stores more carbon in live oceans4. It affects precipitation the northern Pacific coast of South biomass than any other ecosystem patterns all over the world5. America6. The forests in the tropics on the planet.3 Thus, stopping the that receive more than 2,5 meters of deforestation and degradation of rainfall per year with little seasonal tropical rainforests is key to be variations are growing in a climate 4 RAINFOREST FOUNDATION NORWAY 2021 that deterministically supports They can, however, have high rainforests. This means that the This wet endemic species composition. These climate is the main driving force of and frost-free forests can consist of a certain the kind of ecosystem that develops. amount of fire adapted tree species, In such a climatological climax for a climate allows making them more adapted to fires tropical rainforest, no other ecosystem than a rainforest environment16. will naturally grow7. This kind of plants to con- However, this fire adaptability varies, rainforest climate is mainly found in even within the same forest area, interior parts of the Amazon and in tinually grow and none can withstand fires of high Southeast Asia. intensity and durability17. Not all throughout the tropical dry or monsoon forests are Other tropical rainforests can receive transitional forests. The largest as little as 1,5 meters of rainfall a year without tropical dry forest in the world, which year, with a dry season that can last periods of also is a transitional forest, is the 3-5 months. The drier months are Chiquitano forest in Bolivia and not rain free, but they receive energy Brazil18. significantly less rainfall than other months. These are tropical semi- conservation Temperature evergreen rainforests, where some In terms of temperature, a defining trees can shed the leaves during a due to frost or factor for a tropical rainforest is that short period of the dry season to the climate is frost-free. Some areas conserve energy. This is a climate drought. of montane rainforest may experi- zone that also supports savannas. In ence rare and brief occurences of this climate zone, the establishment night frost, but not more than what of fire prone grasses strongly plants and trees that are not adapted determines the establishment of a to frost can withstand19. This wet and forest or savanna environment. frost-free climate allows plants to Light-dependant fire prone grasses continually grow throughout the year so that the tropical rainforests sustain the regular fires of the without periods of energy conserva- become drier and lose the ability to savannas. In contrast to savannas, tion due to frost or drought. This withstand fires12. If conditions rainforests do not consist of fire climate creates the most powerful change significantly, the forest adapted plants and trees. Due to the plant growth conditions of any ecosystem can collapse and lack of sufficient sunlight, the closed environment on the planet20. transition to savanna. Thousands of canopy of a rainforest does not allow kilometres of degraded rainforest for fire prone grasses to grow8. The According to the Food and burn every year due to human forest also holds moisture well, so Agriculture Organization of the UN, caused forest degradation, and when the fires of the savannas reach the frost-free regions of the world human induced fires13. the edge of intact rainforests, they are not strictly restricted to the die out. latitude based definition of the In some areas, the soil and climato- tropical zone. There are tropical logical conditions create transitional This can create sharp borders rainforests as far north as the forests between rainforests and dry between rainforest and savanna, foothills of the Himalayas, beyond savannas. These are called with no transitional ecosystem the tropic of Cancer, and as far south everything from tropical dry forests between them. These are called as northern Argentina, beyond the or tropical monsoon forests, to forest-savanna mosaics and cover tropic of Capricorn21. seasonal tropical forests and tropical large areas of especially Amazonia moist deciduous forests. This forest and equatorial Africa9. Almost the type has a prolonged and distinct dry entire Central African rainforest season during which many of the grows in this climate zone. The trees shed their leaves14. They tend Yucatan rainforest in Mexico, to flank the rainforest to the north or Guatemala and Belize, and much of south. Even though many of these mainland Asia’s rainforest also grow transitional forests can have a dense in this forest-savanna climate10. Over canopy much of the year and consist thousands of years, there is a slow of broad-leaved trees, due to the back and forth struggle between drier climate and prolonged dry forests and savannas in these areas, season, the trees have a lower driven by many different factors11, stature than those of the rainforest. though large blocks of rainforests These forests also consist of fewer have remained relatively stable over plant and animal species, and they time. Today, humans degrade store less carbon in live biomass15. enormous rainforest areas each year STATE OF THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST 5 Tropical rainforest in the world: 9 538 022 km2 73 countries still have tropical rainforest French Guyana, Guadeloupe, and New Caledonia are overseas departments of France. Taiwan is counted as a country. 45 countries have more than 2 63 countries 10 000 km tropical rainforest have more than 1000 km2 tropical rainforest countries 5 16 countries have more than have more than 2 2 500 000 km 100 000 km tropical rainforest tropical rainforest 2 countries have more than 1 000 000 km2 tropical rainforest The tropical rainforest of the world The Americas 60 % The Amazon 56 % 6 RAINFOREST FOUNDATION NORWAY 2021 America Tropical rainforest per biome South America 5 542 029 Amazon/Orinoco/Andes 5 343 645 Central America (incl.