[url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/jan/13/mapped-how-the-world-is-losing-its-forests-to-wildfires[/url]
The world is losing forests to fire at an unsustainable rate, experts have warned.
Wildfires have always been part of nature’s cycle, but in recent decades their scale, frequency and intensity in carbon-rich forests have surged.
Research from the World Resources Institute (WRI) ([url]https://www.wri.org/insights/global-trends-forest-fires[/url]) shows that fires now destroy more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago.
In 2024 alone, 135,000km² of forest burned – the most extreme wildfire ([url]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/13/how-dangerous-wildfires-stop-them-getting-worse[/url]) year on record.
?
The world is losing forests to fire at an unsustainable rate, experts have warned.
Wildfires have always been part of nature’s cycle, but in recent decades their scale, frequency and intensity in carbon-rich forests have surged.
Research from the World Resources Institute (WRI) ([url]https://www.wri.org/insights/global-trends-forest-fires[/url]) shows that fires now destroy more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago.
In 2024 alone, 135,000km² of forest burned – the most extreme wildfire ([url]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/13/how-dangerous-wildfires-stop-them-getting-worse[/url]) year on record.
?