Last year, tropical rainforests vanished at a rate of a football pitch every six seconds, according to Global Forest Watch. We've heard such comparisons for years -  so why are forests still disappearing so quickly, especially as we realise how crucial a xxxxxx they are against an ever-hotter planet?

Mostly, governments aren't enforcing laws against deforestation and are still building access roads into forests - and the rest of us keep buying products produced on the deforested land, says the World Resources Institute.

But a lack of money to reward nations that protect their forests is also a problem - one reason leaders don't put a high-enough value on them, despite their ability to do everything from clean the air and water to generate rainfall.

Finding more cash to keep forests in place may be a challenge, though, as the coronavirus pandemic - and a resulting global economic plunge - threaten to dry up budgets for climate action, particularly in poor countries.

"Developing countries which are already the most affected by climate change could end up also being the most affected by the humanitarian and economic tragedy ushered (in) by the COVID pandemic," warns Yannick Glemarec, executive director of the Green Climate Fund.

Poorer countries could also carry the heaviest financial burden of proposed plans to put 30% of the planet's land and seas under protection by 2030, writes correspondent Thin Lei Win.

Forests protectors, however, are battling on. In Ghana, environmental activists have gone to the high court to stop a proposed bauxite mine in a protected national forest, part of a $2 billion deal with China.

"Bauxite mining is a one-time payment. (The government) cannot bring back the original forest," Oteng Adjei, of one of the citizens' groups bringing the case, told correspondent Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu.

In India, meanwhile, where legions of urban trees have been lost to construction, researchers are pinpointing how crucial their shade is in a hotter world - particularly for the poorest, including street vendors.

"In hot cities, the importance of wooded streets becomes fundamental in ensuring a comfortable, liveable work environment," they say.

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