2020 is BBC's year of the tree (this decision precedes the acknowledgement that 2020 will be the year of the coronavirus), and during the course of the year Climate Focus director Charlotte Streck will comment once a month on current deforestation trends on BBC's Radio 4. In doing so, she reacts to most recent deforestation trends picked up by Global Forest Watch and its “Places to Watch“ initiative.

With data provided by the World Resources Institute’s online platform and the context provided by Charlotte, listeners can learn what makes a forest, how forest can help slow down global heating, why agricultural land use is endangering tropical forests and many other aspects.

In episode 1, the focus is on the wildfires burning down thousands of hectars of forest in Australia. 

Charlotte discusses the rapid deforestation in the Tinigua national park in Colombia in episode 2.

Episode 3 takes us to the Philippines.

In episode 4 Charlotte explains the dynamics behind continuing forest losses in Brazil.

Episode 5 takes listeners to Malaysia where the appetite for palm oil is the cause for massive forest losses.