In 2024, the Amazon rainforest in Brazil will experience a number of fires not seen in 17 years.
140,328 fires were recorded in the area, an increase of 42% over one year.
Good point, however: the total area affected by deforestation could be the lowest in years.
The figure is impressive. In 2024, 140,328 fires were recorded by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in the country’s Amazon forest. This is unheard of since 2007, when 186,463 fires were recorded. Over one year, the number of fires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil increased by 42%, with 98,634 fires recorded in 2023.
The cause in particular, according to the European climate monitoring observatory Copernicus: the severe droughts which affected the region in 2023 and 2024, amplified by climate change and El Niño. These phenomena were added to the fires deliberately lit to clear land for agricultural purposes, the main culprits of the fires ravaging this forest, which is nevertheless crucial for the balance of the global climate.
Deforestation at its lowest?
However, despite record numbers of fires, the total area affected by deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon may be the lowest in years. At the beginning of November, the INPE indicated that the decline in vegetation in the region between the end of August 2023 and the end of August 2024 had fallen by more than 30%, and was at its lowest level in nine years.
-Brazilian President Lula has made preserving the Amazon a priority for his government, which will host the UN climate conference COP30 in the Amazon city of Belém in November. Especially since scientists warn that continued deforestation will put the forest on the path to emitting more carbon than it absorbs, which will accelerate climate change.
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