Politics
Much less Amazon rainforest burned last year
- Since the measurements began in 1985, so little forest has ever burned down.
- According to MapBiomas, which monitors deforestation, this amounted to an area of around 3.1 million hectares in 2025.
- That's a sharp drop from 2024, when 15.8 million hectares of Amazon rainforest went up in flames.
- In 2024, the Amazon was hit by the worst forest fires in more than two decades.
After years of alarming reports about the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, there is now some good news. Since the measurements began in 1985, so little forest has ever burned down. According to MapBiomas, which monitors deforestation, this amounted to an area of around 3.1 million hectares in 2025. That's a sharp drop from 2024, when 15.8 million hectares of Amazon rainforest went up in flames.
In 2024, the Amazon was hit by the worst forest fires in more than two decades. According to the BBC, the decline in the following year can be explained by La Niña, the counterpart of El Niño that is now causing high temperatures in large parts of the world. What is El Nino?
El Niño is a weather phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years. The water in the Pacific Ocean then warms up and disrupts the usual wind and sea currents. This means a higher average temperature worldwide and can lead to extreme weather in several regions, such as drought or a lot of rainfall.
The risks of these extremes are already increasing due to climate change, and El Niño is adding to that. The weather phenomenon alternates with La Niña, which actually has a cooling effect. The last La Niña came to an end last spring, followed by a fairly rapid change to El Niño.
The previous El Niño brought all kinds of weather records in 2023. No El Niño is the same, but as a rule the risk of extremes increases with a heavier El Niño. One of the MapBiomas researchers says that Brazil is increasingly better prepared for forest fires. This provides increasing insight into where fires are recurring and which areas are at greater risk.
This means that preventive measures can be taken earlier. Combating fires in the rainforest is a priority of President Lula. Upon taking office on January 1, 2023, he emphasized that the goal was to "completely stop" deforestation in the Amazon.
The fires are partly because they are started by people. For example, there are farmers who burn areas to make them suitable for agriculture. Shortly after taking office, Lula announced that the rainforest would be monitored more stringently using satellites. Yet there is also criticism of his policy; environmentalists are angry over Lula's approval of oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River.
Source: NOS