CLIMATE change is hindering the recovery of areas of the Amazon hit by deforestation, British and Chinese scientists said yesterday.

New trees are less able to counteract the effects of global warming, as a drier climate is limiting the amount of carbon they can lock away from the atmosphere and stopping them growing to the sizes of their culled forebears.

Scientists found that replanted forests are only be able to recapture two-thirds of the carbon they have lost to the atmosphere through deforestation and climate change in the past 20 years.

The research by the University of Edinburgh, the UK National Centre for Earth Observation and Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in China could inform conservation strategies, such as the Paris Agreement.

Professor Mathew Williams, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences, said: “Owing to the impact of climate change, replanted and recovering forests may not grow to the sizes found in the undisturbed Amazon.”

Researchers were able to reconstruct annual maps of changes to forests by using artificial intelligence to combine satellite data and climate records.

The study will help develop strategies to safeguard these environments.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says one trillion trees must be planted by 2050 to reverse the global decline in tree cover.

The charity warns that 10 billion trees are lost around the world every year, harming biodiversity, local economies and human health.

It says that there were once six trillion trees on planet Earth, but that number has halved, largely thanks to human activity.