One third of Amazon ‘degraded’ by human activity, drought: study

More than one third of the Amazon rainforest may have been degraded by human activity and drought, researchers said Thursday, and action is needed to protect the critically important ecosystem. In a study published in the journal Science, the researchers said the damage done to the forest which spans nine countries is significantly greater than previously known. The study found that fire, timber extraction and edge effects have degraded at least 5.5 percent of all remaining Amazonian forests, or 364,748 square kilometers, between 2001 and 2018. But when the effects of drought are factored in, the degraded area increases to 2.5 million square kms, or 38 percent of the remaining Amazonian forests.