Fires in Brazil’s Amazon at lowest level in 40 years

The area of forest burned in the Amazon fell to its lowest level in 40 years in 2025, according to the annual report by Brazilian monitoring initiative MapBiomas.

Around 3.1 million hectares were affected by fires last year, about 80% less than in 2024.

Wildfires also declined across Brazil as a whole, with 12.7 million hectares burned nationwide. That was down from more than 30 million hectares following a severe drought the previous year and marked the lowest figure since 2018.

In a separate release, MapBiomas said the amount of land covered by water in the Amazon increased in 2025 after two years of drought, helped by higher rainfall. Water coverage was around 2.6% above the historical average.

Researcher Bruno Ferreira said the recovery was positive, but warned that the long-term situation remained worrying as extreme weather events become more frequent in the region.

Climate change and changes in land use were affecting water levels, he said.

An analysis of the past four decades found that more than 49% of all burned areas were on privately owned rural land, while around 8% were in settlements.

Trees are often felled, and the cleared land then burned to create pasture or farmland, including for soybean cultivation. During particularly dry periods, the fires can spread out of control.

MapBiomas said fires in Brazil could be caused naturally or by human activity. However, natural fires are less common in tropical rainforests such as the Amazon than in other ecosystems.

The network, which includes universities, non-governmental organizations and technology companies, analyses satellite imagery and other data.