"Across Russia, Europe, Indonesia, the Amazon Basin, North America, Australia, and beyond, we have watched fires blaze across landscapes, causing immense damage to life and land. Now, a new analysis confirms what many have witnessed firsthand and in the news: forest fires are getting worse.
Researchers at Global Forest Watch, an environmental monitoring platform developed by the World Resources Institute, reviewed 20 years of satellite data on tree cover loss to identify what they call stand-replacing fires, those that burn all or most of a forest’s living overstory trees. These may be caused by wildfires, fires escaped from agricultural burning, or fires set by humans.
Compared to 2001, fires are now causing 3 million more hectares (7.4 million acres) of tree cover loss per year, amounting to an area larger than Belgium. In 2021, fires were responsible for more than one-third of all tree cover loss for the year, making it one of the worst years on record.
Russia, Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Australia had the highest tree cover loss due to fire over the past 20 years."
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