Fires and Amazon News

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Rainburst over the Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

New studies portray Amazon as surprisingly resilient, but tipping point looms

Amanda Magnani 14 Aug 2026
Amazon rainforest burned in Acre, Brazil, to make way for cattle pastures. Image courtesy of Victor Moriyama/Climate Visuals.

Amazon deforestation falls to 10-year low in first half of 2026

Shanna Hanbury 16 Jul 2026
Firefighters from the Chico Mendes Institute work to contain a forest fire and prevent it from reaching Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, in Brazil’s northern Goiás state in 2025. Image by AP Photo / Eraldo Peres.

Fire surge in 2025 threatened isolated peoples in Brazil

Aimee Gabay 24 Jun 2026
Rain over the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

South America’s farms depend, in part, on a healthy Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jun 2026
A tiger-striped tree frog (Callimedusa tomopterna) in the Brazilian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Amazon resilient to fire, but diversity loss still a threat, study finds

Suzana Camargo 21 May 2026
Burned-over forest in the Brazilian state of Acre, one of the epicenters of deforestation in the Amazon.

Deforestation and warming could push Amazon to tipping point by 2040s: Study

Sean Mowbray 7 May 2026
The Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

A “good year” for forests changes less than it seems

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2026
Açaí berry production in Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land, home to the Munduruku people, Pará state, Brazil.

Heat, fires and agribusiness squeeze traditional Amazon açaí harvesters

Carla Ruas 27 Apr 2026
Palm trees, which make up 20% of the trees in the Amazon, grow mixed among various tree and grass species in the southern Peruvian Amazon lowlands of Manu National Park.

Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest

Justin Catanoso 10 Apr 2026
The Kapawi River, soon to be the first “solar river” in the Amazon, is a lifeline for more than 1,000 Indigenous peoples and is home to endangered pink river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis). Image by Andrés Cornejo.

Indigenous governance key to protecting Amazon Basin connectivity, experts say

Constance Malleret 7 Apr 2026
Emergent tree in the Amazon Rainforest, Ecuador. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Climate change drives uneven shifts in tree diversity across Amazon and Andes

Constance Malleret 27 Feb 2026
As COP30 unfolded in Belém this past November, civil defense coordinator Edson Abreu dos Santos decided to revisit the areas that had burned in Acará.

Seminarian-turned-fire-agent preaches new tactics to fight Amazon’s burn crisis

Carla Ruas 28 Jan 2026

Indigenous women lead a firefighting brigade in Brazil’s Cerrado

Mongabay.com 7 Jan 2026

Satellite data show forest loss persists in Brazilian Amazon’s most deforested reserve

Morgan Erickson-Davis 30 Dec 2025
Rainforest in Brunei in 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Dec 2025
A forest fire in August 2025 in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace.

Weather disasters are surging in the Amazon. Reporting isn’t.

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Nov 2025
Annual deforestation in the Legal Amazon (Amazonia) from 1988-2025, according to a preliminary estimate from Brazil's national space research institute, INPE.

Heading into COP, Brazil’s Amazon deforestation rate is falling. What about fires?

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Oct 2025
A forest fire in August 2025 in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace.

Amazon Rainforest hits record carbon emissions from 2024 forest fires

Shanna Hanbury 8 Oct 2025
An Indigenous Tikuna man in the Amazon Rainforest in Colombia. Some researchers oppose the idea that human cultures would have been limited and determined by the environment, and that supports the notion that human cultures have modified the environment as desired. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Forests on Indigenous lands help protect health in the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Sep 2025
Fire and deforestation in the Amacro region (the states of Amazonas, Acre and Rondônia) in the Brazilian Amazon in late August 2022. Photo © Nilmar Lage / Greenpeace

In Brazil, invaders set fires in Karipuna Indigenous land, leaders say

Shanna Hanbury 26 Aug 2025
Area of burned forest in ​​the city of Apuí, Amazonas state. Image by Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real via Wikimedia Commons. (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Amazon deforestation spikes as Brazil blames criminal fires

Lucas Berti 16 Jul 2025

World Rainforest Day and the state of Earth’s most vital rainforests

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Jun 2025

Wildfires push tropical forest loss in Latin America to record highs

Mie Hoejris Dahl 17 Jun 2025
Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Climate strikes the Amazon, undermining protection efforts

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Jun 2025
Fire in an area newly deforested in Brazil.

Brazil is speeding-up forest fire prevention to avoid dangerous tipping points in the Amazon (commentary)

Robert Muggah, Ilona Szabo 6 Apr 2025

Brazil declares environmental emergency ahead of 2025 fire season

Shanna Hanbury 20 Mar 2025

Amazon states lead rebellion on environmental enforcement

Fernanda Wenzel 3 Feb 2025
A firefighter in the Xingu Indigenous Territory.

World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South

Simrin Sirur, Orji Sunday, Karla Mendes 13 Jan 2025

After a searing Amazon fire season, experts warn of more in 2025

Fernanda Wenzel 8 Jan 2025
YEAR IN RAINFORESTS BANNER

The year in tropical rainforests: 2024

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Dec 2024

Amazon’s Boiling River gives scientists a window into the rainforest’s future

Liz Kimbrough 20 Dec 2024
Satellite imagery captured September 2024 by Planet Labs shows a fire burning along the boundary between Xingu Indigenous Park and Capoto/Jarina Indigenous Territory. The territories are surrounded by denuded industrial farm fields.

Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon

Ruth Kamnitzer 29 Nov 2024

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