Brazil reports smallest burned area for January in three years
Brazil recorded 437 thousand hectares of burned area in January this year – 36 percent less than in the same month in 2025 and 58 percent less than in January 2024. Despite the overall positive data, compared to 2025 an increase in fires was observed in the pantanal, caatinga, and Atlantic forest biomes, as per figures from MapBiomas.
According to MapBiomas’ technical coordinator for fire, Vera Arruda, the rise in fires in some biomes is a warning sign, “as it happened in a month that usually has fewer fires, since most of Brazil is in the rainy season,” she pointed out.
During the first month of the year, fires affected over 337 thousand hectares of the Amazon, 38 thousand hectares of the pantanal, 26 thousand hectares of the cerrado, 18 thousand hectares of the caatinga, 14 thousand hectares of the Atlantic forest, and only 59 hectares of the pampa.
Compared to January 2025, the Amazon saw a 46 percent shrinkage in the territory affected by fire, the pampa recorded a 98 percent plunge, and the cerrado saw an eight percent dip.
However, in the pantanal, the burned area grew by 323 percent – as did the Atlantic forest, which saw a 177 percent surge, and the caatinga, with 203 percent.
Native vegetation
Most of the area consumed by fire in Brazil in January – 66.8 percent – consisted of native vegetation. Of this, 35 percent was grassland, 17.3 percent was flooded fields, and 7.3 percent was forest.
Among the areas where land use has been modified by human activities, pastures were the most burned in January, accounting for 26.3 percent of the total area affected by fire in the country.
Amazon
In terms of area, the Amazon biome was the most widely burned biome in the first month of the year, with an area nine times larger consumed by fire than the pantanal, the second biome with the largest area affected.
The state of Roraima alone had an area under fire three times larger than the entire area affected by it in the pantanal biome. A total of 156,900 hectares were consumed in the state.
According to Felipe Martenexen, a researcher at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), the state – the only one located entirely above the Equator – has a climate calendar that is distinct from the rest of Brazil.
“The so-called ‘Roraima summer’ runs through the dry season from December to April, which increases vulnerability to fire, especially in rural areas – farmland – as well as other open areas,” he says.
The expert adds that the prevalence of fire in Amazon states in January is closely linked to this inverted seasonality. Maranhão and Pará states also rank high on the list, with 109 thousand and 67,900 hectares burned respectively.
