Rainforest claim 'unsubstantiated'

A report which suggested that as much as 40 per cent of the endangered Amazon rainforest could be destroyed by climate change may have been based on unreliable evidence, it has been revealed.

In 2007, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report showing that large areas of the Amazon could be wiped out.

According to the study, a change in the rainfall level in the rainforest could see trees swept away and "savanna grassland" established in its place.

However, it has been revealed that the report was based on information given to the UN by environmental group the WWF, which was from a report carried out by the WWF in 2000.

The IPCC hit the headlines recently when doubts were raised over a report that it released on global warming in relation to the melting of ice glaciers in the Himalayan mountains. The panel retracted a previous statement which warned that the glaciers could have totally melted by 2035.

Written by Zara Hassan.

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