Researchers said on Thursday that more than one-third of the Amazon rainforest may have been degraded by human activity and drought, and action is needed to protect the critically important ecosystem.
In a study published in the journal Science, the researchers said the harm done to the forest which apparently spans to nine countries, is knowingly greater than previously known.
The study found that fire, timber abstraction and edge effects have degraded at least 5.5 per cent of all remaining Amazonian forests, or 364,748 square kilometres, between 2001 and 2018. But when the effects of drought are factored in, the degraded area increases to 2.5 million square km or 38 per cent of the remaining Amazonian forests.