Fires in the Amazon – are our protected areas burning? 

Due to the escalating situation in South America and the constant stream of new, devastating images, we are receiving an increasing number of enquiries about the state of our conservation areas. We can reassure you:

our conservation areas are intact. We have not been affected by the ongoing forest fires.

Forest fires in South America

Year after year, during the dry season from June to October, we see images of devastating forest fires in the Amazon – and year after year, the number is increasing. According to the latest figures, more than 50,000 fires have ravaged the rainforest so far in 2024, whilst the region is battling its worst drought in over 120 years.1 According to our team on the ground, this year’s forest fires in Peru are by far the worst they have seen since 2019. A state of emergency or disaster has already been declared in numerous countries, including Peru.2

These fires are not only destroying valuable habitats and claiming the lives of many animals that cannot escape quickly enough – they are also causing incredibly large quantities of CO2 to be released into the atmosphere. According to the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS), 183 megatonnes of carbon had been released in Brazil alone by 19 September this year – 12.5 times as much as New York City’s annual emissions. These are the highest figures since CAMS began recording data 22 years ago.3 But the direct consequences are also clearly felt by the local population: thick layers of dust, ash and smoke are blanketing the cities, obscuring the sun and the horizon, and literally suffocating the people living there.

Person walking through lush jungle trail surrounded by towering trees, dense green foliage, and fallen logs.
Large-scale forest fires in intact forests rarely start of their own accord – they are usually deliberately set by people.

How do forest fires start?

Put simply, the main cause of the fires is the conversion of rainforest into land suitable for agriculture, mostly for monocultures or cattle farming. The land is first cleared of trees, then left to lie fallow for a while so that it can be dried out by the sun, and finally set alight using copious amounts of petrol to clear the vegetation – without these intermediate steps and aids, the forest would be far too damp and would not burn at all! When these fires get out of control – and they often do – they can result in huge wildfires. This year, the situation is being made even worse by the severe drought and the lack of rainfall.
The drought and the lack of rainfall are also attributable to increasing deforestation. The clearing of ever more forest areas is disrupting the natural water cycle in the Amazon rainforest. Clouds coming in from the Atlantic are driven by the wind over the rainforest, where they bring rain. Some of the rainwater evaporates straight away and turns into water vapour; the water that reaches the ground is absorbed by the trees’ roots and transported up through the trunk to the tree canopy, where it is ‘exhaled’ and also rises as water vapour to form new rain clouds. These are carried further by the wind, it rains, and the cycle begins anew. However, as more and more trees are felled, it becomes increasingly difficult for the rainforest to produce ‘its own’ rain. This raises temperatures, makes the land drier and thus also encourages the outbreak and spread of forest fires. The deforestation of the rainforest is yet another example of anthropogenic (human-induced), very rapid climate change, which is becoming increasingly evident in all regions of the world.

Why are our protected areas safe?

Our protected areas are intact ecosystems, and although our team in Peru is also feeling the effects of increasing drought, the vegetation in these forests stores so much water that forest fires cannot break out. Intact forests do not burn over large areas – they are simply too damp for that. For these areas to actually catch fire, they must be cleared and set alight by human hands. To prevent this, our Forest Guardians patrol our protected areas daily, keeping an eye out for illegal activities. They are supported in this by sensors from our partner Breeze, which are distributed throughout our protected areas and detect and report signs of forest fires at an early stage.
Research team in rainforest discussing conservation data with local guides surrounded by dense tropical vegetation.
Our team installing the Breeze sensors in our conservation areas.

Our agroforestry project also makes a significant contribution to the security of our protected areas, as it enables local communities and farmers to learn more and more about agroforestry and sustainable farming practices. One of the aims is to ensure that they no longer practise slash-and-burn farming, but instead grow their crops in the shade of large trees.  

We support these projects with farmers who own land adjacent to our protected areas. This is because agroforestry, with its large trees that provide shade and moisture, also protects our forests from drought and wind. 
If the areas bordering our protected areas were to be completely cleared and replaced by monocultures, the drought would also affect the forest edges of our areas, and the trees along the boundaries would be vulnerable to storms.

So our protected areas are safe – for now. According to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), up to 47 per cent of the Amazon rainforest is under threat from droughts and fires.If things continue in this way – with the water cycle remaining disrupted, the forests becoming increasingly dry and temperatures rising ever higher – then the Amazon rainforest, too, will inevitably approach its tipping point.4 If we cross this threshold, it will have catastrophic consequences not only for the rainforest, but for our entire global climate system.
Two people examine and document plants in a vegetable field. One wears a cowboy hat and holds a clipboard while taking notes.
Our agroforestry project also plays a significant role in preventing the outbreak of forest fires.

What can we do?

The Amazon rainforest is regarded as the most biodiverse place on Earth and, at the same time, stores vast quantities of carbon which would be released back into our atmosphere as a result of deforestation. It also helps to stabilise our global climate and is crucial for our water supply. There is no question that we must protect the rainforest. But how? 

The answer seems simple: we must protect the last remaining large, contiguous areas of forest, of which, fortunately, there are still a few throughout the Amazon region. But we must act quickly, as these areas are slowly being torn apart and becoming increasingly fragmented. There is still hope of saving the Amazon rainforest and stabilising our climate – but we must act now and work together to ensure that the rainforest does not cross its tipping point!

Share this post

  1. 1.

    https://www.npla.de/thema/umwelt-wirtschaft/es-brennen-die-waelder-lateinamerikas/ (2 October, 14:25)

  2. 2.

    https://latina-press.com/news/329315-waldbraende-peru-verhaengt-den-ausnahmezustand/ (2 October, 14:27)

  3. 3.

    https://www.n-tv.de/ticker/Flaechenbraende-in-Suedamerika-mit-extremen-Kohlenstoff-Emissionen-article25245717.html (2 October, 15:22)

  4. 4.

    https://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/amazon-rainforest-at-the-threshold-loss-of-forest-worsens-climate-change (accessed 8 October, 15:45)