article_snippet.sent: By 2030 up to 170 million hectares (420 million acres) of forest - equivalent to the combined size of Germany, France, Spain and Portugal - could be lost, conservationists have warned.
article_snippet.sent: The huge amount of global deforestation is expected to occur in less than a dozen global hostpots, based on current trends.
article_snippet.sent: Research by wildlife charity the WWF identified 11 'deforestation fronts' where 80 per cent of projected global forest losses by 2030 could occur.
article_snippet.sent: By 2030 up to 170 million hectares (420 million acres) of forest - equivalent to the combined size of Germany, France, Spain and Portugal - could be lost in just 11 hotspots, including the Amazon (shown) and eastern Australia, conservationists have warned .
article_snippet.sent: 80 per cent of projected losses will occur in just these 11 areas .
article_snippet.sent: Rod Taylor, director of the WWF's global forest programme, said: 'Imagine a forest stretching across Germany, France, Spain and Portugal wiped out in just 20 years. '
article_snippet.sent: the WWF analysis shows that more than 230 million hectares (570 million acres) of forest could vanish by 2050 if no action is taken, with the organisation warning that forest loss must be reduced to near zero by 2020 to avoid dangerous climate change and economic losses.
article_snippet.sent: forest loss must be reduced to near zero by 2020 to avoid dangerous climate change and economic losses are being lost to expanding agriculture (example of a rainforest cleared in the Amazon shown), including livestock farming, palm oil plantations and soy production, as well as small-scale farmers, the WWF's latest Living Forests report warned .
article_snippet.sent: WWF-UK's chief adviser of forests, Will Ashley-Cantello, said: 'Deforestation needs to stop if we are to reverse biodiversity loss and combat climate change - which, if unchecked, will affect we quality of life. '
article_snippet.sent: Thousands of square miles of rainforest is cleared in the Amazon each year to make way for farming land - a pattern of destruction that takes place all around the world.
highlights_snippet.sent: Up to 420 million acres of forest will be lost in the next two decades .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: 80 per cent of project losses will occur in just 11 'deforestation fronts'
  