Articles | Volume 22, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-5247-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-5247-2025
BG Letters
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08 Oct 2025
BG Letters | Highlight paper |  | 08 Oct 2025

Extensive fire-driven degradation in 2024 marks worst Amazon forest disturbance in over 2 decades

Clément Bourgoin, René Beuchle, Alfredo Branco, João Carreiras, Guido Ceccherini, Duarte Oom, Jesus San-Miguel-Ayanz, and Fernando Sedano

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GFC2020: A Global Map of Forest Land Use for year 2020 to Support the EU Deforestation Regulation
Clément Bourgoin, Astrid Verhegghen, Silvia Carboni, Iban Ameztoy, Lucas Degreve, Steffen Fritz, Martin Herold, Nandika Tsendbazar, Myroslava Lesiv, Fréderic Achard, and René Colditz
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-351,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-351, 2025
Preprint under review for ESSD
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Cited articles

Andela, N., Morton, D. C., Schroeder, W., Chen, Y., Brando, P. M., and Randerson, J. T.: Tracking and classifying Amazon fire events in near real time, Sci. Adv., 8, eabd2713, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd2713, 2022. 
Andreae, M. O. and Merlet, P.: Emission of trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 15, 955–966, https://doi.org/10.1029/2000GB001382, 2001. 
Barlow, J., Berenguer, E., Carmenta, R., and França, F.: Clarifying Amazonia's burning crisis, Glob. Change Biol. 26, 319–321, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14872, 2020. 
Beuchle, R., Achard, F., Bourgoin, C., Vancutsem, C., Eva, H., and Follador, M.: Deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon – Status and trends up to year 2020, EUR 30727 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, ISBN 978-92-76-38352-9, https://doi.org/10.2760/61682, 2021. 
Birant, D. and Kut, A.: ST-DBSCAN: An algorithm for clustering spatial–temporal data, Data Knowl. Eng., 60, 208–221, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.datak.2006.01.013, 2007. 
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This paper reports the alarming increase in wildfires in the Amazon rainforest during the severe 2023/2024 drought leading to an increase in large-scale forest degradation. It is highly relevant as the fire-driven forest degradation impacted also intact forests and released large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere pushing the Amazon rainforest closer to a potential tipping point.
Short summary
The Amazon forest faces increasing wildfires due to extreme drought and human activity. In 2024, disturbances surged by 152 %, hitting a 20-year high. Forest degradation from fires grew by over 400 %, exceeding that from deforestation. Brazil and Bolivia were hit hardest. These fires released huge amounts of CO2, 7 times more than in recent years, pushing the Amazon towards a dangerous tipping point. Urgent action is needed to prevent irreversible harm.
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