STOCKSHOTS of fires and deforestation in Amazon rainforest in the run up to the COP16 International biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 1, 2024. The world's biggest rainforest, the Amazon, has lost an area around the size of Germany and France to deforestation in the past four decades, a study showed Monday. Deforestation, mainly for mining and agricultural purposes, has led to the loss of 12.5 percent of the Amazon's plant cover, according to the RAISG collective of researchers and NGOs. STOCKSHOTS