Over 185 million hectare have been consumed by fire between 1985 and 2022. Each year, the burnt area in Brazil equals Suriname's A cada ano, a área queimada no Brasil equivale à do Suriname
A new mapping of the suface affected by fire in Brazil reveals that the burnt area in the country, from 1985 to 2022, was of 185,7 million of hectare, equivalent to 21,8% of the brazilian territory. The annual mean reaches 16 million of hectares, which represents 1,9% of Brazil. Such extensions are comparable to entire countries' areas. The case of accumulated fire throughout 38 years equals to the area of Colombia and Chile together. The annual mean, to Suriname.
The data of MapBiomas Fire Collection 2, launched in the Seminar "Fire in Brazil: Strategies applied to the Integrated Manegement of Fire ( MIF in Portuguese)" In April 26th, with the support of PrevFogo-IBAMA. The set of information on fire scars in over 851 million of hectares of the brazilian territory are obtained upon satellite imagery and cloud processing. MapBiomas Fire does not count up the number of fire spots, but its extension consumed by flames.
The area affected by fire varies among the six brazilian biomes, being Cerrado and Amazon the most concentrated ones with 86% of Brazil's burnt area from 1985 to 2022. The Cerrado burnt, in average, 7.9mha/year, which means that every year an area larger than Scotland has burnt only in the biome. In Amazon, the average was of 6,8 mha/year - almost equivalent to Ireland. However, when the analyses are within the own biome, Pantanal is the leader, with 51% of its lands consumed by fire in the same period.
The Mato Grosso state presented the larger fire occurence, being followed by the states of Pará and Maranhão. The municipalities that burnt the most from 1985 to 2022 have been Coumbá (MS), São Félix do Xingu (PA) and Formosa do Rio Preto (BA).
Access the main results of MapBiomas Fire Collection 2
MapBiomas data provide valuable clues for federal and local governments combat fire and fire spots. In addition to biomes, states, and municipalities information regarding fire scars, the mapping also presents the periods of the year with the most occurence of fire. In the national level, the months from July to October concentrate 79% of the burnt area in Brazil, being September the with 30% itself. Nevertheless, monthly register varies among biomes. In Caating, for example, about 60% of fires occur from October to December. In Cerrado, 89,5% of fire mainly happens between the months of July and October.
"Through this time serie of fire data we can understand the effects of climate and human activity upon fires and wildfires. For instance, we noticed clearly that in El Niño years there are more fire occurences, as seen in the last El Niños years years (2015 - 2016 and 2019), in comparison to La Niña years - when there are more rainfalls in the Amazon ( 2018 and 2021). The exception to this dynamic was 2022, when even though a year of La Niña there were many fires." explains Ane Alencar, coordinator of MapBiomas Fire and Science Director of IPAM. "In reality, in order to fires occur and spread out, it is required a combination of three elements: there must be a great amount of material in condition to burn; a climate suitable for fire; and a starting source. The story of fire presented by MapBiomas data clearly demonstrates the years of greater drought as well as the ones of larger deforestation", the specialist complements.
On the Integrated Fire Management (MIF), Ane explains that "people usually think that every fire is only bad. Fire is only bad when it is used in an inappropriate way and in biomes which do not depend on fire to maintain theirselves, as Amazon. In biomes as Cerrado, Pantanal and Pampa, fire has a ecological role and must be managed in a proper way in order to avoid being turned into a destruction agent. To do so, the practices related to the Integrated Fire Management (MIF) are important because they can, through scheduled and controlled fire, reduce the amount of flammable materials and avoid large fires.
Vera Arruda, operational coordinator of MapBiomas Fire and researcher at IPAM, adds that "the Cerrado is a biome that evolves with the presence of fire, as part of its natural ecosystem, in which many vegetal species and animals depend on it to survive. However, the frequency and intensity of fire has increased in the last years due to deforestation and climate change, which, by their turn, cause temperature increase and drought."
Most recurrent fires in Amazon and Cerrado
In all Brazil, about 63% of the area has already been affected by fire more than once in 38 years. This percentage changes when the burnt area is analyze regarding the biome. In Pampa, Atlantic Forest and Caatinga, for example, the burnt area only once from 1985 to 2022 is 80%, 72% and 65% of the biome, respectively. In Amazon, however, only 39% has been burnt only once. Almost half (48%), has been burnt from 2 to 4 times, indicating that most of the Amazon burnt areas are recent.
The percentage of recurring burnt areas in Amazon is greater than in Cerrado, in which 36% of the biome's area burnt only once. Recurring fire, from 2 to 4 times between 1985 and 2022 reached 38% of the burnt area in Cerrado - 10% less than in the Amazon and 5% less than in Pantanal, where the area burnt from 2 to 4 times is 43% of biome. By the other hand, Cerrado is the biome with the larger area of recurring fire events greater than 16 times, which means that the areas have been burnt at least every 2 years, totaling 2 million do hectares.
Over two thirds ( 68,9%) of fire in the period occurred in natural vegetation. Only 31,1% has occured in anthropic areas. Fields and savannas are the kind of vegetation that most burn. Regarding the land use, it is Pasture. However, the proportion varies among biomes. In the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, most part of the fire occured in anthropic areas, as pasture land. The others biomes follow the national pattern, with most of the fire occurring in natural vegetation.
About MapBiomas Fogo: Mapping the surface of Brazil by processing more than 150,000 images generated by the Landsat 5, 7 and 8 satellites from 1985 to 2022. With the help of artificial intelligence, the area burned in each 30 m X 30 m pixel of the more than 8.5 million square kilometers of Brazilian territory over the period was analyzed, in all types of land use and cover.. The resulting data is available in maps and annual, monthly and cumulative statistics for any period between 1985 and 2022 on the platform, https://mapbiomas.org/ ,which is open to all. It also includes fire frequency data, indicating the areas most affected in the last 38 years and the type of land cover and land use that burned, allowing for territorial and land-use cut-offs by biome, state, municipality, river basin, conservation unit, indigenous land, settlements and areas with CAR.