Brazil's Amazon sees sharp decline in size of area burned in 2025

What the report says

BBC World News reports that Brazil’s Amazon saw a major fall in burned area in 2025, citing new data from the monitoring group MapBiomas. The group said 3.1 million hectares burned in Brazil’s portion of the rainforest, down from 15.8 million hectares in 2024, and the lowest annual total in its records dating to 1985.

The decline follows a severe fire year in 2024, when the Amazon experienced its worst fires in more than 20 years. Across Brazil as a whole, MapBiomas recorded about 12.7 million hectares burned in 2025, compared with 30 million hectares the year before. The BBC noted that 2007 remains the highest year in the national series, at 30.7 million hectares burned.

Vera Arruda of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute and MapBiomas told the BBC the figures show burned areas can be reduced, but cautioned that one year of improvement is not enough to establish a lasting trend or justify easing prevention measures. The report said the fall partly reflects a shift away from the hotter El Niño conditions that helped worsen 2024 fires, though MapBiomas warned El Niño could lengthen this year’s dry season and raise fire risk.

The findings carry political and environmental significance. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged to protect the Amazon and pursue zero deforestation after taking office in 2023, following a period under Jair Bolsonaro in which environmentalists said forest loss accelerated. The BBC also notes Lula has faced criticism from activists over approval of oil exploration near the mouth of the Amazon River.