Environment Statistics - 2020 1. Introduction This issue of Economic and Social Indicators presents statistics on Environment for year 2020 based on data gathered from various institutions. The main environment indicators for the years 2019 and 2020 are given in Table 1, while technical notes are given at Annex. Figures presented in the tables may not add up to totals due to rounding. 2. Forestry and Agriculture 2.1 Forestry Preservation of forests is vital for the protection of the ecosystem. Total forest area decreased by 20 hectares from 47,031 hectares in 2019 to 47,011 hectares in 2020. Some 22,011 hectares (46.8%) of the total forest area in 2020 was state-owned and the remaining 25,000 hectares (53.2%) was privately-owned (Table 2). Out of the 22,011 hectares of state-owned forest area, 11,779 hectares (53.5%) were planted areas, while the Black River Gorges National Park and the nature reserves accounted for 6,574 (29.9%) and 799 (3.6%) hectares respectively. “Pas Geometriques” covered about 589 hectares (2.7%), other nature parks, 908 hectares (4.1%), Ramsar sites, 46 hectares (0.2%) and other forest lands, 1,316 hectares (6.0%). The 25,000 hectares of privately-owned forest lands consisted of 18,447 (73.8%) hectares of plantation, forest lands, scrub and grazing lands, and 6,553 (26.2%) hectares of mountain, rivers and nature reserves. 2.2 Agriculture The area harvested of sugar cane decreased from 45,054 hectares in 2019 to 43,711 hectares in 2020. The production of sugar cane went down by 23.0% from 3,405,250 tonnes in 2019 to 2,620,874 tonnes in 2020. The average yield has decreased by 20.7% from 75.58 tonnes per hectares in 2019 to 59.96 in 2020 (Table 3). The production of sugar went down by 18.2% from 331,105 tonnes in 2019 to 270,875 tonnes in 2020, in spite of a higher extraction rate of 10.34% in 2020, compared to 9.73% in 2019. The area under food crops harvested increased by 1.7% from 7,334 hectares in 2019 to 7,456 hectares in 2020. Production of foodcrops increased by 0.7% from 93,736 tonnes in 2019 to 94,410 tonnes in 2020. The area under tea plantation increased by 4.4% from 656 hectares in 2019 to 685 hectares in 2020. The production of green tea leaves went down from 8,329 tonnes in 2019 to 5,105 tonnes in 2020, representing a decrease of 38.7% . 2 2.3 Import of fertilisers and pesticides Intensive use of chemical based fertilisers and other agro-chemicals may contribute to the pollution of the environment through the leaching of nitrate to ground water. From 2019 to 2020, import of fertilisers decreased by 19.1% from 33,354 tonnes to 26,991 tonnes. Import of pesticides increased by 4.3% from 2,590 tonnes to 2,700 tonnes (Table 4). 3. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions GHG are gases occurring naturally and also resulting from human-induced activities (anthropogenic emissions from production and consumption). They contribute directly or indirectly to global warming. Some main GHG are Carbon Dioxide (CO 2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O). 3.1 Total GHG emissions by sector The total GHG emissions (excluding Forestry and Other Land Use) in 2020 were 5200.3 Gg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) compared to 5777.0 Gg CO2-eq in 2019, representing a decrease of 10.0 %. In 2020, there was a rise in emissions from sectors, namely; industrial processes and product use, agriculture, forestry and other land use and waste (Table 6). However, a decrease of 14.7% in emissions has been observed in the energy sector in 2020. The contribution of GHG to total global GHG emission stood at 0.01% (Source: United Nations Environment Programe(UNEP), Emissions Gap Report 2020). The energy sector remains the largest contributing sector and accounted for 70.3 % (3,657.9 Gg CO2-eq) of the total emissions followed by the waste sector with 26.3 % (1,367.8 Gg CO 2eq), the agriculture sector with 2.4 % (123.4 Gg CO2-eq) and the industrial processes and product use sector, 1.0% (51.2 Gg CO2-eq) - (Figure 1). 3 3.2 Total GHG emissions by type gases In 2020, carbon dioxide (CO2) was the main GHG representing 70.3 % (3654.0 Gg) of total GHG emissions. Methane (CH4) contributed 26.5 % (1,378.5 Gg CO2-eq), nitrous oxide (N2O) 2.9 % (153.1 Gg CO2-eq), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) 0.3% (14.8 Gg CO2-eq)-(Figure 2). HFCs (0.3%) 3.3 Net GHG emissions In 2020, GHG emissions have decreased mainly due to a lower fuel consumption in the Energy sector. On the other hand, an increase was observed in GHG removals due to a decrease