Basemap: Fires in the Amazon in 2022. The orange dots mark the main fire locations. The green line is the biogeographic boundary of the Amazon and the blue line is the boundary of the Amazon basin. Data: Akka.
An important link between recent deforestation and fires was also identified, with 72% of large fires occurring in the Brazilian Amazon.
983 large-scale fires were reported in the Amazon in 2022, affecting nearly 1 million hectares, according to a new report by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Projects (MAAP).
The majority (72%) occurred in the Brazilian Amazon, followed by Bolivia (15%), Peru (12%) and Colombia (1%). No large fires were detected in other Amazon countries.
Data were obtained based on real-time Amazon fire monitoring applications from MAAP. It combines atmospheric and ground data to highlight the largest fires.
In the Brazilian Amazon, the majority (71%) of large fires occurred in recently deforested areas, a study highlights an important link between recent deforestation and fires. .
In addition, more than 120 of the largest fires are estimated to have devoured an area of 58,000 hectares recently cleared for new soybean plantations in the Brazilian and Bolivian Amazons.
However, it should be noted that this fire season was less intense than the last two years, when over 2,500 large fires were recorded annually.
“This appears to be consistent with fire prediction models that predicted a ‘slightly active fire season’ in 2022 based on surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean,” MAAP said.
Additional survey results from each country are shown below.
Brazilian Amazon
MAAP has detected 704 large fires in the Brazilian Amazon between May and October 2022.
Early in the season, from mid-May to the end of June, there were 60 large fires that burned an area of 25,000 hectares recently cleared for new soybean plantations in Mato Grosso.
In July, a fire broke out in an area recently cleared for new pasture (see image).
Overall, of the 704 total large fires, 71% occurred in recently deforested areas (500 large fires).
These fires destroyed an estimated 285,000 hectares of recently cleared tropical forest. This again underscores the close relationship between large fires and the recent high rate of deforestation in Brazil.
They also documented almost 100 forest fires (14% of the total). This is defined as a large man-made fire that burns standing (uncleared) forest.
These fires, which may have escaped initial burns in recently deforested areas and grasslands, have devoured approximately 110,000 hectares of Brazil’s Amazon forest.
Despite the concerns, these numbers are well below those of the 2020 severe wildfire season, when 40% of the largest fires burned 2.2 million hectares of Amazon forest.
Other types of fires (in addition to recent deforestation and forest fires) have occurred in grasslands and old arable land.
More than 50 of the major fires occurred in indigenous territories and protected areas. Most affected were the indigenous territories of Xingu and Kapot/Jalina.
The states of Amazonas (29%), Mato Grosso (28%) and Para (26%) had the most fires, followed by Rondonia (11%) and Acre (7%).
Bolivian Amazon
From mid-May to mid-October 2022, 151 large fires have been detected in the Bolivian Amazon.
During the first part of the fire season (May-June), most fires destroyed more than 26,400 hectares recently cleared for new soybean plantations in Santa Cruz (see image).
Since July, there has been a trend of frequent savannah fires in Beni Department.
In September, several forest fires broke out in Santa Cruz. It is defined as a large man-made fire that burns standing forest (uncut forest).
These fires, which may have escaped initial burns in recently deforested areas and grasslands, have devoured nearly 110,000 hectares of Bolivian Amazon forest.
Several savannah fires have affected the Noel Conf Mercado National Park.
Overall, the 2022 fire season was less intense than in the last two years, when many of the savannah fires escaped into the surrounding dry forest ecosystem.
Peruvian Amazon
From June to mid-October 2022, 122 large fires have been detected in the Peruvian Amazon.
Most of the fires (71%) burned recently deforested areas (over 56,000 ha). This is a pattern similar to that of the Brazilian Amazon. These fires mainly occurred in the Madre de Dios (see image), Ucayali and Huanuco areas.
There were also many large fires (25%) in mountain grasslands such as Cusco. These fires affected his 6,100 hectares.
Finally, we had some forest fires. It is defined as a large man-made fire that burns standing forest (uncleared forest).
Most notably, a massive fire in the Ucayali area in October destroyed 1,600 hectares of forest around the new Mennonite colony. This fire may have escaped burning large areas recently cleared by the Mennonites.
Colombian Amazon
MAAP detected six large fires in the Colombian Amazon in February and March 2022. Note that Colombia’s fire season is much earlier than other countries.
Project data are underestimated because we started registering data after the start of the fire season.
Of the large fires they registered, five burned more than 1,300 hectares in recently deforested areas in Guaviare, Meta and Caqueta.
