The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) flagship publication “The State of the World’s Forests 2020” states that “between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. The area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990 (FAO, website 2021).” There are also some reports that the Covid-19 related lockdowns and the restrictions to forest ranger activities may have caused an acceleration in the rates of deforestation during 2020 and that the economic recovery following the pandemic may encourage further de-foresting activities as communities look for new sources of income.
