¿Cuánto bosque se perdió en 2016?

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Este es un archivo de Forest Pulse, que se actualiza anualmente utilizando datos anuales de pérdida de cubierta arbórea para proporcionar una descripción general completa de dónde se han perdido bosques en todo el mundo. Cada año se publican actualizaciones anuales que cubren las tendencias del año anterior. Vea el último análisis aquí.

La pérdida de cobertura arbórea mundial ascendió al 51% en 2016

La pérdida de cobertura arbórea mundial, ascendió a un récord de 29,7 millones de hectáreas (73,4 millones de acres) en 2016, según datos nuevos de la Universidad de Maryland lanzados hoy en Global Forest Watch.  Dicha pérdida, es 51% mayor que el año pasado, ascendiendo a un área que se aproxima al tamaño de Nueva Zelanda. Los incendios forestales, parecen ser la causa principal del salto este año, incluso la degradación dramática ligada a los incendios en Brasil.  La deforestación relacionada con la agricultura, la tala de árboles y la minería continúan impulsando la pérdida de cobertura arbórea mundial año con año. La gran escala de perturbación en los bosques tropicales demuestra la necesidad urgente de mejorar el manejo forestal.

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Los bosques en un punto crítico

Los incendios, raramente ocurren naturalmente en los bosques tropicales; los incendios ocurren cuando el uso del fuego por los humanos interactúa con las temperaturas extremas y la sequía.  La tendencia este año, se debe en parte a los efectos de El Niño en el mundo en el período 2015/2016, el segundo más fuerte jamás registrado, el cual trajo consigo condiciones de sequía a lo largo de los trópicos.  La deforestación y degradación causadas por el ser humano, también hacen que los bosques sean más propensos a los incendios porque crean condiciones más secas en el clima. El Niño, además juega un rol en los bosques boreales y templados, donde los incendios ocurren de forma natural. Sin embargo, el cambio climático está aumentando la intensidad y los costos de los incendios.

El aumento de incendios forestales es preocupante en muchos niveles. Aún en aquellos lugares donde los incendios representan un elemento importante del ecosistema, los grandes incendios pueden tener impactos significativos en la salud humana y causar daños extensos en la propiedad e infraestructura. Los incendios forestales puede liberar enormes cantidades de carbono en la atmósfera, y en los bosques tropicales donde dichos incendios rara vez ocurren, puede impactar fuertemente la estructura boscosa y la biodiversidad. Las interacciones de los incendios tropicales con los cambios del uso de suelo y el cambio climático, podrían llevar a que los bosques se sequen en el futuro, en lugares como la Amazonía. Un mejor manejo forestal puede reducir el riesgo de los incendios en un primer lugar: la deforestación y degradación aumentan enormemente el riesgo de incendios en los bosques tropicales, mientras que en ecosistemas propensos al incendio los bosques descuidados ocurren más incendios dañinos.  Sistemas de detección temprana como VIIRS y los mecanismos de cooperación interagencial rápida, permiten responder a los incendios lo antes posible, para así reducir los daños y costos de la lucha contra incendios forestales. Para mitigar los daños de los incendios al ser humano y al bosque, es fundamental evitando el uso del fuego durante la época seca. En Indonesia y Brasil, se cuenta con políticas y leyes que limitan el uso de fuego para desmontar la tierra. Sin embargo, informes sugieren que dichas políticas no se cumplen eficazmente, o bien no cuentan con los fondos necesarios.

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La pérdida de cobertura arbórea en Brasil se duplica debido a los incendios en el sotobosque

La región de la Amazonía Brasilera, perdió 3,7 millones de hectáreas (9,1 millones de acres) de cobertura arbórea durante el año civil de 2016, casi tres veces más de lo que había perdido en 2015. La mayoría de ese aumento ocurrió en los estados de Pará y Maranhão, los cuales fueron fuertemente afectados por incendios a finales de 2015 y 2016.

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La pérdida relacionada a los incendios, reflejada en los datos de 2016, se debe principalmente a los incendios lentos que queman el sotobosque, la vegetación debajo del dosel forestal. Dichos incendios, generalmente no matan a todos los árboles o generan cambios en el uso de suelo, lo que significa que el daño subsecuente a los bosques, quizás no sea detectado por otros sistemas de monitoreo de la deforestación. Sin embargo, sí resultan en reducciones importantes de la cobertura del dosel, el almacenamiento de biomasa y la biodiversidad (lea más sobre estos temas aquí).

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Un incendio en el sotobosque de la Amazonía brasilera. El calor prolongado de dichos incendios lentos, puede matar a los árboles pequeños, y aumentar las tasas de mortalidad en los años siguientes. Fotografía cortesía de: Jos Barlow.

El sistema gubernamental oficial de monitoreo de la deforestación, PRODES, recientemente registró una reducción de la deforestación en la Amazonía brasilera para el periodo de agosto de 2016 – julio de 2017, una tendencia alentadora después del aumento significativo registrado el año anterior. Las cifras brasileras, miden la deforestación debido a la tala indiscriminada del bosque primario, y probablemente no incluyen mucha de la degradación forestal relacionada con los incendios detectada por los datos de la Universidad de Maryland sobre la pérdida de cobertura arbórea (lea más sobre la diferencia entre PRODES y los datos sobre la pérdida de cobertura arbórea aquí). Ambas tendencias son importantes, y la escala de la perturbación recogida por los datos sobre la pérdida de cobertura arbórea en 2016 resalta la necesidad de monitorear holísticamente los cambios forestales y las implicaciones correspondientes para el cambio climático, la biodiversidad y la integridad global de los ecosistemas forestales. Los incendios forestales probablemente continuarán siendo un problema importante en Brasil – el mes de septiembre de 2017 tuvo la cantidad más grande de incendios que jamás se ha registrado en cualquier mes desde que se empezó a mantener un registro en 1998, con los/as funcionarios/as citando el uso ilícito del fuego, agravado por una falta de vigilancia gubernamental, como la causa principal.

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Fuerte estación de incendios en Indonesia detectada en los datos de 2016

Indonesia también experimentó un aumento en la pérdida de cobertura arbórea en 2016, probablemente relacionado con la fuerte temporada de incendios a finales de 2015.

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Los incendios forestales en Indonesia a finales de 2015, los cuales fueron bien documentados por los medios de comunicación, representaron un enorme desastre ambiental, liberando 1,62 mil millones de toneladas métricas de dióxido de carbono. La contaminación resultante, causó más de 100.000 muertes prematuras.  (Aunque muchos de los incendios ocurrieron a finales de 2015, la mayoría de la pérdida de cobertura arbórea subsecuente no fue registrada hasta principios de 2016. Aprenda por qué aquí.) Los efectos de la tala y expansión de plantaciones a gran y pequeña escalas, también son visibles en los datos de 2016 sobre Indonesia.  Papúa experimentó un aumento de la pérdida de cobertura arbórea el año pasado, lo cual ha continuado en 2016, debido a la expansión en curso de las plantaciones de palma de aceite en bosques primarios.

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Pérdidas por incendios en Europa, África y Norteamérica

La pérdida de cobertura arbórea en Indonesia y Brasil, representa más de la cuarta parte de la pérdida de cobertura arbórea mundial. Sin embargo, varios otros países experimentaron pérdidas masivas relacionadas a incendios en 2016.

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Portugal perdió 4% del total de su cobertura arbórea en 2016, el más alto porcentaje de cualquier país. Casi la mitad de todos los bosques perdidos por incendios en la Unión Europea en 2016 ocurrió en Portugal, lo cual fue agravado por la prevalencia de plantaciones de eucalipto y pino propensos a incendios, y el mal manejo pésimo de la tierra y prácticas pésimas de prevención de incendios. Recientes incendios mortales, señalan otro año inigualado en 2017. En la República del Congo, uno de los incendios más grandes que jamás se ha registrado en África Central destruyó 15.000 hectáreas (37.000 acres) de bosque a principios de 2016. Este incendio también probablemente fue fortalecido por la sequía causada por El Niño y las perturbaciones naturales y humanas. El incendio de Fort McMurray en Canadá, destruyó más de 600.000 hectáreas (1,5 millones de acres) de bosques, y causó $8,8 miles de millones en daños. Aunque los incendios forestales son un elemento natural en los ecosistemas de bosques boreales, la probabilidad e intensidad de los incendios pueden ser aumentadas por los efectos de El Niño y del cambio climático. Los incendios recientes en Brasil, California, Portugal y otras partes, sugieren que los incendios forestales no desaparecerán – más bien, podrían empeorarse a medida que se va calentando el Planeta. La gran escala de bosques impactados por los incendios y otras causas en 2016, dejan en claro que ahora más que nunca, necesitamos trabajar juntos hacia una mejor gestión forestal.


The authors would like to acknowledge Matt Hansen, Peter Potapov and Svetlana Turubanova, who updated the tree cover loss data, and Doug Morton, Mark Cochrane and Carlos Nobre, who provided valuable background information for this article.


 

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"},"86":{"name":"natural","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"12":{"name":"natural forest","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"63":{"name":"natural forests","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"144":{"name":"open canopy systems","description":"Individual tree crowns that do not overlap to form a continuous canopy layer.\r\n"},"82":{"name":"persistent gain","description":"Forests that have experienced one gain event from 2001 to 2016.\r\n"},"13":{"name":"persistent loss and gain","description":"Forests that have experienced one loss or one gain event from 2001 to 2016."},"97":{"name":"plantation","description":"An area in which trees have been planted, generally for commercial purposes.\u0026nbsp;\r\n"},"93":{"name":"plantations","description":"An area in which trees have been planted, generally for commercial purposes.\u0026nbsp;\r\n"},"88":{"name":"planted","description":"A forest composed of trees that have been deliberately planted and\/or seeded by humans.\r\n"},"14":{"name":"planted forest","description":"Stand of planted trees \u2014 other than tree crops \u2014 grown for wood and wood fiber production or for ecosystem protection against wind and\/or soil erosion.\r\n"},"73":{"name":"planted forests","description":"Stand of planted trees \u2014 other than tree crops \u2014 grown for wood and wood fiber production or for ecosystem protection against wind and\/or soil erosion."},"148":{"name":"planted trees","description":"Stand of trees established through planting, including both planted forest and tree crops."},"149":{"name":"Planted trees","description":"Stand of trees established through planting, including both planted forest and tree crops."},"15":{"name":"primary forest","description":"Old-growth forests that are typically high in carbon stock and rich in biodiversity. 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"},"96":{"name":"shifting agriculture","description":"Temporary loss or permanent deforestation due to small- and medium-scale agriculture.\r\n"},"103":{"name":"surface roughness","description":"Surface roughness of forests creates\u0026nbsp;turbulence that slows near-surface winds and cools the land as it lifts heat from low-albedo leaves and moisture from evapotranspiration high into the atmosphere and slows otherwise-drying winds. \r\n"},"17":{"name":"tree cover","description":"All vegetation greater than five meters in height and may take the form of natural forests or plantations across a range of canopy densities. Unless otherwise specified, the GFR uses greater than 30 percent tree canopy density for calculations.\r\n"},"71":{"name":"tree cover canopy density is low","description":"Less than 30 percent tree canopy density.\r\n"},"60":{"name":"tree cover gain","description":"The establishment of tree canopy in an area that previously had no tree cover. 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