O Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam) announced that the area burned in 2024 in all of Brazil already reaches 1.98 million hectares. For comparison purposes, it is a region equivalent to 2.7 million football fields. Or almost the entire state of Sergipe. The data was generated by Fire Monitornetwork initiative MapBiomas coordinated by the organization.
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In the same period of 2023 (January to February), the country registered 472 thousand hectares. This represents 1.51 million more: one 319% increase. Only the month of February (950 thousand ha), despite a drop compared to January (-7.72%), increased by 410% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The increase is mainly due to the spread of flames in Roraima (1.1 million ha). The North region accounts for 87% of the total burned in the first two months of 2024 (1.7 million ha).
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As explained by Ipam researcher Felipe Martenexen, this is due to the “dry period that occurs between the months of December and April, which was worsened by the El Niño phenomenon”.
“Most of the vegetation affected by the fires in Roraima occurs in the lavrado, a region characterized by the presence of grassland vegetation. This ecosystem is especially vulnerable to fire during the final period of the burning window, when climatic conditions and the nature of the vegetation itself favor the spread of fire”, assesses Martenexen.
The Amazon was the most affected biome. 1.8 million hectares were consumed by flames (93% of the total burned in 2024); Next comes the Cerrado, with 62 thousand hectares, or 85 thousand football fields.
