ISTANBUL

The Amazon rainforest has recorded its most devastating fire season in more than two decades, with new research showing fire-related damage now surpassing deforestation as the top driver of carbon emissions in the region.

A study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, published in the journal Biogeosciences, found that wildfires burned 3.3 million hectares of rainforest in 2024 alone, unleashing record carbon emissions and accelerating ecosystem degradation.

Scientists said the findings reveal the Amazon’s “growing ecological fragility,” noting that fires once considered secondary to deforestation have now become the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Using advanced satellite data from the Tropical Moist Forest monitoring system, researchers applied new techniques to distinguish forest fires from agricultural burns and cloud interference, allowing for unprecedented accuracy in mapping fire-related degradation.

The 2024 fire season released about 791 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — nearly equal to Germany’s annual emissions — a sevenfold increase from the average of the previous two years.

“The escalating fire occurrence, driven by climate change and unsustainable land use, threatens to push the Amazon towards a catastrophic tipping point,” the study warned.

"Urgent, coordinated efforts are crucial to mitigate these drivers and to prevent irreversible ecosystem damage."