Once our primary forests are gone, they’re gone forever

Calls at COP26 in 2021 to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 continue to ring hollow as targets to reduce it have been missed in almost all tropical regions

Recently burnt forest across cleared land in Mato Grosso, Brazil. WWF's biennial 'Living Planet' report said the world's largest rainforest has been ravaged by deforestation, extreme drought and catastrophic wildfires to such an extent that the ecosystem could now collapse — warning it could be reaching an irreversible tipping point beyond which it will decline until "we're just left with shrub". Picture: Suzie Hubbard/WWF-UK/PA 

At the 2021 United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, 145 nations made a pledge to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.

Almost three years later, the call for transformative action is ringing hollow.