Clarifying Amazonia's burning crisis
Open accessAbstract
This article clarifies the different types of fire in the Amazon, their different drivers and the positive feedbacks that can lead to more fires in the region. It then explores evidence regarding the peak in active fire detections in August 2019, showing that these were linked to the highest levels of deforestation since 2008. Finally, we examine the solutions needed to reduce the prevalence of uncontrolled or illegal fire in the Brazilian Amazon.
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Deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon increased again after many conservation efforts were abolished by the Bolsonaro government.
“In fact, deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon increased again after many of these conservation efforts were abolished by the Bolsonaro government 65,79 .”
From Health benefits of reduced deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (2024) · cites this paper as [65]
The Main text (p. 2) reports a marked 2019 increase in deforestation and active fire counts. It also says the government was undermining forest monitoring and cutting law-enforcement resources (p. 3), but does not say that many conservation efforts were abolished. The paper cautions that active fire counts rarely detect forest fires, so those counts do not establish an Amazon-wide increase in forest fires specifically. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Research works printed but not linked: 7
- Aragão, L. E. O. C., Anderson, L. O., Fonseca, M. G. M. G., Rosan, T. M. T. M., Vedovato, L. B. L. B., Wagner, F. H. F. H., … Saatchi, S. (2018). 21st Century drought-related fires counteract the decline of Amazon deforestation carbon emissions. Nature Communications , (in press), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02771-y · DOI · Paper page
- Barlow, J., Parry, L., Gardner, T. A., Ferreira, J., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Carmenta, R., … Cochrane, M. A. (2012). The critical importance of considering fire in REDD+ programs. Biological Conservation , 154 , 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.03.034 · DOI
- Brando, P. M., Paolucci, L., Ummenhofer, C. C., Ordway, E. M., Hartmann, H., Cattau, M. E., … Balch, J. (2019). Droughts, Wildfires, and Forest Carbon Cycling: A Pantropical Synthesis. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences , 47 (1), 555-581. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-082517-010235 · DOI
- Carmenta, R., Vermeylen, S., Parry, L., & Barlow, J. (2013). Shifting Cultivation and Fire Policy: Insights from the Brazilian Amazon. Human Ecology , 41 (4), 603-614. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-013-9600-1 · DOI
- Fonseca, M. G., Alves, L. M., Aguiar, A. P. D., Arai, E., Anderson, L. O., Rosan, T. M., … Aragão, L. E. O. e C. (2019). Effects of climate and land -use change scenarios on fire probability during the 21st century in the Brazilian Amazon. Global Change Biology , 25 (9), 2931-2946. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14709 · DOI
- Jiménez-Muñoz, J. C., Mattar, C., Barichivich, J., Santamaría-Artigas, A., Takahashi, K., Malhi, Y., … Schrier, G. van der. (2016). Record-breaking warming and extreme drought in the Amazon rainforest during the course of El Niño 2015-2016. Scientific Reports , 6 , 33130. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33130 · DOI
- Withey, K., Berenguer, E., Palmeira, A. F., Espírito-Santo, F. D. B., Lennox, G. D., Silva, C. V. J., … Barlow, J. (2018). Quantifying immediate carbon emissions from El Niño-mediated wildfires in humid tropical forests. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , 373 (1760), 20170312. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0312 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradation
Lapola, D. M., Pinho, P., Barlow, J., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Berenguer, E., Carmenta, R., Liddy, H. M., Seixas, H., Silva, C. V. J., Silva-Junior, C. H. L., et al. (2023) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abp8622 · Cited by 630 · see citing works
Self-citationYu, W., Ye, T., Zhang, Y., Xu, R., Lei, Y., Chen, Z., Yang, Z., Zhang, Y., Song, J., Yue, X., et al. (2023) · The Lancet Planetary Health · doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(23)00008-6 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
Health benefits of reduced deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
Damm, Y., Börner, J., Gerber, N., & Soares-Filho, B. (2024) · Communications Earth & Environment · doi:10.1038/s43247-024-01840-7 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Barlow, J., Berenguer, E., Carmenta, R., & França, F.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal de Lavras (BR)
- Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Universidade Federal do Pará (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Barlow, Jos
- Venue
- Global Change Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-11-15
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 319-321
- ISSN
- 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2486
- OpenAlex
- W2988454417
- Cited by
- 376
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 90 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 26.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Global Change Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (acceptedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/K016431/1, NE/P004512/1, NE/S0184X/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Oil Palm Production and Sustainability
- Keywords
- Amazon fires, fire regimes, deforestation, positive feedback, uncontrolled fires, fire detection, fire drivers, fire mitigation
- MeSH terms
- Brazil, Conservation of Natural Resources, Trees
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