Congo Basin deforestation nears Amazon levels

The destruction releases vast stores of carbon, adding to climate change that is already contributing to drought and forest fires across the tropics. Forest clearing in the Congo Basin nearly matched losses in the Amazon for the first time in a decade of monitoring, even as deforestation slowed worldwide, a new study found. Expanding farming, timber, and mining activities are driving the clearances in the basin, which is home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, the Forest Declaration Assessment group said. In DR Congo, where most of the forest is situated, decades of conflict — along with poor oversight — have fueled uncontrolled logging, driving up the rate of tree loss in central Africa this decade. Meanwhile, there has been a steep decline in deforestation in Latin America and the Caribbean, leaving the two regions almost on a par.