Study: Wildfires are burning up almost twice as much area of forest as they did in 2001

Wildfires are destroying nearly twice as much tree cover globally as they did in 2001, burning through an additional 7.4 million acres of forest annually, an area roughly the size of Belgium, a new analysis shows.

Researchers at the World Resources Institute (WRI) found that fires account for a growing share of forest loss. While wildfires were responsible for around a fifth of global tree cover loss in 2001, they accounted for more than a third in 2021.

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/wildfires-forest-loss-climate-change