At a Glance

Another 39 million acres of tropical tree cover was lost in 2017, the second-worst year on record, a new report said.Only 2016 had more tropical tree cover loss than last year, according to the report.Brazil remains the country that's losing the most tropical tree cover annually.

Our planet lost 40 football fields' worth of trees every minute in 2017, according to a new report that focused on tropical tree cover loss.

In the report released Tuesday, a team of scientists from the World Resources Institute andthe University of Maryland concluded 2017 since records began, topped only by 2016. In total, some 39 million acres of tree cover was lost in the tropics in one year – roughly the size of Bangladesh, the report added.

"Despite concerted efforts to reduce tropical deforestation, tree cover loss has been rising steadily in the tropics over the past 17 years," said the report. "Natural disasters like fires and tropical storms are playing an increasing role, especially as climate change makes them more frequent and severe. But clearing of forests for agriculture and other uses continues to drive large-scale deforestation."

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Brazil continued to lead all nations in tropical tree cover loss in 2017, losing another 7.4 million acres last year. As Earther pointed out, that's roughly .

The report also found Colombia had a huge spike in tree cover loss last year as political stability made previously protected lands available for deforestation. Conversely, Indonesia saw a decline of more than 50 percent in one year thanks to a nationwide decision to stop draining and burning peatlands in 2016, the report added.

Climate change is also being blamed for some of the tree cover loss. As weather patterns change and droughts intensify, periods of extreme dryness have helped to make wildfires more intense, burning more land.

Furthermore, last year's devastating hurricane season contributed to major tree cover loss on several Caribbean islands. Dominica lost 32 percent of its tree cover in 2017, according to the report, and Puerto Rico lost 10 percent.

Frances Seymour at the World Resources Institute told the Guardian that to efforts that reduce deforestation. Currently, only 2 percent of funds are dedicated to forest and land protection, she said, and that's far too little when forests help so much with efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"This is truly an urgent issue that should be getting more attention," she told the Guardian. "We are trying to put out a house fire with a teaspoon."