Brazil witnesses loss of 2.15 million hectares due to fires
In the first half of this year, Brazil witnessed 2.15 million hectares burned, as reported by MapBiomas Brasil—a collaborative network comprising NGOs, universities, and technology companies that produce land cover and usage reports. This figure represents a 1 percent decrease from the corresponding period last year.Around 84 percent of the burned areas consisted of native vegetation, predominantly found in grassland formations.Among the biomes, the Amazon had the largest burned area in the semester, with 1.45 million hectares devastated, accounting for 68 percent of Brazil's total burned area—a 14 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022.The Cerrado biome trailed behind with 639,000 hectares scorched—accounting for 30 percent of the country's total burned area and a 2 pe...