In 2024, Mexico first joined the top ten of the countries with the highest forest loss worldwide, according to data from the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute (WRI).
The numbers available on the global forest monitoring platform prove that 330,000 hectares of trees coverage had disappeared last year, by 45 percent from 2023.
In an interview with Excelsior, Fernando Catalán, WRI Mexico Forest Coordinator, explained that in 2024, forest fires were the main cause of destruction, not only in national territory but all over the world.
He explained that, according to the available results, Quintana Roo and Campeche are the states of the Mexican Republic with major monuments.
Only last year, the National Forest Committee (CONAFOR) achieved a record number of eight thousand fires in the forest with an effect on a million 672,000 hectares before.
Just a few days ago, the UNAM Climate Change Research Program revealed that Mexico heated faster than the rest of the world, because while the planet raises its temperature in two degrees Celsius, our country does this at a rate of 3.2 ° C.
The increase in forest fires and their destruction also coincides with discounts in the Confucian budget, which decreased between 2019 and 2024 in real terms by 25.09 percent.
Fernando Catalan, Mesico Forest Monitoring Coordinator in Mexico, stressed that before forest fires were exhausted, it is necessary to apply preventive measures and provide equipment sets to combat fire.
“It is extremely important to continue to strengthen all the programs that the government suffers from specifically from addressing this problem, which is due to the trends that will definitely continue to increase this situation, which an entire society must pay attention,” he said.
The world in fire
The annual analysis of Global Forest Watch indicates that the loss of world forests in the historical maximum in 2024 due to the catastrophic increase in forest fires.
He warned that this destruction issued 4.1 GB of greenhouse gases, more than four times the carbon dioxide emissions for all flights by the commercial plane that was made in 2023, with devastating effects on people and climate.
“The loss of initial tropical forests was only 6.7 million hectares, which is nearly twice that in 2023 and the area of nearly 18 football fields per minute.
For the first time in our records, the fires (not agriculture) were the main cause of the loss of primary tropical forests, which represent approximately 50 percent of all destruction. “
The average forest fires in the past reached only 20 percent of the losses in the primary tropical forests.
Elizabeth Goldman, participating in Global Forest Watch, indicated that this level of forest loss has been unpublished for more than 20 years of records.
“It is a global red alert, a collective invitation to work for every country, every company and every person who cares for a good planet. Our economies, our societies, our health, can not survive without forests,” he said.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (OMM), in 2024 it was the hottest year since there were records 175 years ago, and therefore the harsh conditions fed by climate change and the Nino phenomenon, caused forest fires more intense and difficult to control.
“Although forests have the ability to recover from heat, the pressures that are combined in change in land use and climate change can hinder their flexibility and increase the possibility of future fires,” the report adds.