MapBiomas: burned area falls in 2025 and interrupts sequence of increases

The drop, which interrupted a sequence of fire expansion in recent years, was driven mainly by the Amazon, whose burned area in 2025 was the smallest in the historical series, with 3.1 million hectares. The previous year, the Amazon biome recorded its worst historical rate, with more than 15 million hectares burned.

The Cerrado also recorded fewer flames in 2025 than the historical average, but remains the biome most affected by fire, with 8.7 million hectares burned. The Pantanal had the biggest proportional drop among all biomes, with 121 thousand hectares burned last year – the lowest rate in the historical series. The Caatinga was the only biome to record fires above the average in 2025, with 505 thousand hectares burned.

As Folha points out, even with the improvement, the level of burned areas in Brazil is still high: the total burned in 2025 represents almost half the area of the state of São Paulo (248 thousand km²).

Almost half (47%) of the entire area burned in Brazil since 1985 is concentrated in three states: Mato Grosso (45.1 million hectares), Pará (31.6 million) and Maranhão (20.7 million), according to MapBiomas. At the municipal level, 11% of the entire area burned in the country in the last 41 years is concentrated in 15 cities, with emphasis on Corumbá (MS) and São Félix do Xingu (PA), which lead the historical ranking.

The panorama of the last four decades makes it clear how fire has become an increasingly frequent problem in Brazilian biomes. According to MapBiomas, 64% of everything that has caught fire in Brazil since 1985 has burned more than once, and the Cerrado is the biome with the highest proportion of area burned more than once (66%).

Of the national total, 52% of areas with recurrence burned again within 4 years. This interval is even shorter in the Amazon: 31.6% of its burned area catches fire again within two years – which shows that the vegetation has less and less time to recover from one event to the next.

"In the Amazon, where the vegetation is not adapted to fire, such short intervals between events reduce recovery time and increase the risk of new, more intense and degrading fires. This process can progressively compromise regeneration and make the forest increasingly vulnerable to fire", explained Luiz Felipe Martenexen, from IPAM and the MapBiomas team, in O Globo.

The data reinforces scientists' concern about the “Super El Niño”, which could cause extreme drought in the Amazon in the coming months, favoring the spread of fire. “In El Niño years, we tend to have more burned area (…) because [the phenomenon] leaves the vegetation drier and more susceptible to fires. And it is worth remembering that most fire ignition sources are human”, observed Vera Laisa Arruda, researcher at IPAM and MapBiomas, in Valor.

MapBiomas data received great attention in the press, with articles in Bom Dia Brasil, Brasil de Fato, DW, Exame, g1, Gigante 163, Globo Rural, Metrópoles, Neomondo, Pará Terra Boa, Projeto Colabora and Revista Fórum, among others.