Brazil’s burned area in 2025 is 31% below historical average
Brazil recorded 12.7 million hectares burned in 2025 – a 31 percent reduction compared to the historical average of 18.4 million hectares per year. It also represents nearly half of the area affected by fire in 2024.
The data are part of the second edition of the annual report on fires in Brazil, released by MapBiomas, which compiles information on areas burned in the country from 1985 to 2025.
According to the survey, the area burned last year broke a trend of expansion, with the decline in the Amazon standing out as the main factor behind the reduction.
After reaching the largest burned area on record in 2024 – 15.8 million hectares – the biome recorded its lowest figure in 41 years in 2025 – 3.1 million hectares.
Despite this, the Amazon and the cerrado continue to account for the majority of Brazil’s burned areas. Together, the two biomes account for 86 percent of the total area affected by fire since 1985.
The cerrado remained the biome most affected by fires in 2025, with 8.7 million hectares burned. The pantanal showed the largest proportional reduction among all biomes, with only 121,000 hectares burned – an 85.6 percent plunge from the historical average. The caatinga was the only biome to see an above-average burned area for the year – 505,000 hectares.
According to Ane Alencar, director of science at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam) and coordinator of MapBiomas’ fire division, the historical data series allows us to understand changes in wildfire behavior over time.
“Knowing where fires are recurrent, how often they return, what their potential severity is, and which areas are burning more or less is essential for setting priorities, guiding preventive actions, and implementing the National Policy for Integrated Fire Management more efficiently.”
Recurrence
For the first time, the document also presents indicators on the potential severity of fires (low, moderate, high, very high, or extreme) and the fire return interval (the number of years between occurrences in the same area).
When considering the entire country, 64 percent of the burned area was classified as moderate or low severity. However, in the specific analysis by biome – the Atlantic forest, the pampa, and the pantanal – half or more than half of the burned area was classified as high or very high severity.
The data also show that 64 percent of the total burned area in the country since 1985 has been affected by fire more than once. Among these areas, more than half burned again within four years.
The Amazon had the shortest recurrence intervals. According to the survey, 31.6 percent of the burned areas in the biome caught fire again within two years. Luiz Felipe Martenexen, a researcher with MapBiomas, explains that the type of vegetation influences the intensity and frequency of fires.
“In the Amazon, where the vegetation is not adapted to fire, such short intervals between fire events reduce the forest’s recovery time and increase the risk of new, more intense, and more damaging fires. This process can progressively compromise regeneration and make the forest increasingly vulnerable to fire,” Martenexen noted.
In the cerrado, 66 percent of the total area burned since 1985 has experienced more than one fire episode. According to researcher Vera Laísa Arruda, of MapBiomas and Ipam, the increased frequency of fires may also compromise regeneration.
“In the cerrado, fire is part of the biome’s natural dynamics, but the current incidence – marked by more frequent and extensive events – may exceed the vegetation’s capacity to recover. When this pattern intensifies, the risks of biodiversity loss and biome degradation increase,” Vera Laísa stated.
States
The survey shows that Mato Grosso, Pará, and Maranhão account for 47 percent of the total area burned in Brazil since 1985. The three states have burned 45.1 million, 31.6 million, and 20.7 million hectares during that period respectively.
Vegetation
According to the report, 71.5 percent of the total area burned from 1985 to 2025 was native vegetation, while 28.5 percent was in areas affected by human activities, such as pastures and agricultural land.
The distribution, however, varies among biomes. In the Amazon and the Atlantic forest, fires occur predominantly in areas modified by human activity, mainly pastures.
In contrast, in the caatinga, the cerrado, the pantanal, and the pampa, more than 80 percent of the burned areas consists of native vegetation.
