Brazil’s Amazon rainforest saw its highest number of fires in 17 years in 2024, government data released Wednesday showed, after the vast biome suffered months of prolonged drought.
According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), 140,328 fires were detected through satellite imagery during the year.
That was 42 percent more than the 98,634 fires recorded in 2023 – and the highest number since 2007, when 186,463 forest fires were observed.
However, despite the large number of fires, there were indications that the total area affected by deforestation could be the lowest in years.
In early November, INPE said deforestation in the region had fallen by more than 30 percent year-on-year in the 12 months to August 2024, and was at its lowest level in nine years.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made preserving the Amazon a priority for his government, which will host the UN COP30 climate conference in the Amazon city of Belem in November this year.
The European climate monitor, the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said last month that severe drought had caused forest fires across South America by 2024.
Thick plumes of smoke sometimes clouded major cities last year, including Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, with choking pollution that lasted for several weeks.
Drought has parched the Amazon since mid-2023, due to human-induced climate change and the El Nino warming phenomenon.
This helped create the conditions for the massive fires, but experts say most of the fires were deliberately set by farmers to clear land for farming.
Scientists warn that continued deforestation will put the Amazon on track to reach a point where it will emit more carbon than it absorbs, accelerating climate change.
rmb/aha
