Compared to 2001, fires are now causing 3 million more hectares (7.4 million acres) of tree cover loss per year, amounting to an area larger than Belgium. In 2021, fires were responsible for more than one-third of all tree cover loss for the year, making it one of the worst years on record.
Russia, Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Australia had the highest tree cover loss due to fire over the past 20 years.
The GFW analysis of fire data from the Global Land Analysis & Discovery (GLAD) lab at the University of Maryland was released Aug. 17 and built upon a study on forest loss due to fire from 2001 through 2019 published earlier this year. These analyses provide the most up-to-date and highest-resolution look at global stand-replacing fires.