The Amazon rainforest is losing its ability to recover from destruction, and parts of it are approaching “a catastrophic tipping point”, warns a leading scientist after a new study using two decades of satellite data.

The research found that in more than three-quarters of the world’s largest rainforest its resilience to damaging events, such as droughts or fires, had declined consistently since the early 2000s.

The study by Exeter university, the Potsdam Institute and Munich technical university used satellite information to track changes over 25 years to examine how the Amazon’s vegetation had responded to fluctuating weather conditions.