Fire tied to 38% of global forest loss
From 2003–2018, 38±9% of annual forest loss was fire-related, and that fraction explained 89±5% of year-to-year variation in global loss rates.
Source
The role of fire in global forest loss dynamics
What they did
Hansen forest-loss maps were overlaid with burned-area and active-fire detections to estimate fire-related loss globally and regionally, including trends.
What they found
Average loss 239×10³ km²/yr; 91±22×10³ km²/yr fire-related. Boreal sparsely populated areas were almost entirely fire-related; some forestry regions ≤10%. Global fraction was stable but fell in Amazon/Indonesia and rose in African tropics.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Overlap of fire detections with loss is not a full causal attribution of every pixel; logging or climate can co-occur with fire, and burned-area products miss some fires.
Key terms
- Fire-related forest loss
- Forest-loss pixels coincident with burned area or active fires.
- Hansen forest loss
- Landsat-based annual tree-cover loss product.
- Burned area vs active fire
- Two satellite fire detections; both used because each misses some events.
- Interannual variability
- Year-to-year swings in global forest-loss area.
- Deforestation frontier
- Regions of rapid commodity-driven forest conversion, often using fire.
Flashcards
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Quiz yourself
Fire-related share of global forest loss was about:
Common questions
What share of forest loss was fire-related?
38±9% (2003–2018).
Share of year-to-year variability?
89±5%.
Boreal vs forestry regions?
Nearly all vs typically ≤10%.
Global trend in the fraction?
Stable overall; regional declines and African increases.
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