Brazil records 62% jump in area burned by forest fires: monitor

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Historic forest fires in Brazil last year scorched through an area larger than the size of Italy, recording a burned area some...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Historic forest fires in Brazil last year scorched through an area larger than the size of Italy, recording a burned area some 60 percent higher than average of the last four decades, said a report released Tuesday.

Brazil experienced historic fires last year, particularly in the Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest on the planet that is key to absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

According to the monitoring platform MapBiomas, the fires razed 30 million hectares (115,830 square miles) last year, a 62 percent jump compared to the 18.5 million hectares burned annually on average.

MapBiomas, which began satellite recording in 1985, said that the Amazon accounted for more than half of the fires suffered in Brazil, with 15.6 million hectares affected -- more than double its historical average.

The record is discouraging for the government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will host the UN's COP30 climate conference in November in the Amazonian city of Belem.