Overview

• Wildfires ravaged 300,000 square kilometers of Brazilian forest in 2024, marking a 60% increase over the four-decade average.
• Experts attribute the surge to highly flammable vegetation, low humidity and deliberate fires used for illegal land clearing.
• MapBiomas warns that once forests burn they lose moisture and cover, making them more vulnerable to future blazes.
• In the Pantanal wetland, fires have affected 62% of the area at least once over the past 40 years.
• Despite the wildfire spike, overall deforestation fell by 32% in 2024 to 1.24 million hectares, marking a second consecutive annual decline.