ブラジル、２０２４年の山火事でイタリア総面積以上が焼損 調査報告

【リオデジャネイロＡＦＰ＝時事】２０２４年にブラジルで発生した山火事による焼損面積は前年比７９％増となる約３０万８０００平方キロに及び、イタリアの総面積を上回ったとする調査結果が２２日、公表された。（写真は、ブラジル北部アマゾナス州ラブレア近郊から捉えた、違法な野焼きが行われているアマゾンの熱帯雨林）
　熱帯雨林アマゾンの破壊を追跡する共同プラットフォーム「マップバイオマス」による調査結果によると、焼損面積全体のうち、アマゾンの火災は５８％を占めている。
　昨年の焼損面積は、２０１９年以降で最大となった。データによると、約８万５０００平方キロの森林が燃え、アマゾンでは初めて草原部分の焼損面積を上回った。
　マップバイオマスのアネ・アレンカル氏は「森林がいったん焼失すると、以降の山火事が発生しやすくなる」と指摘した。
　気候変動の影響で樹木などの乾燥化が進み、火災のリスクが高まっている。しかしブラジルでの主な出火原因は、牧草地や農地の開拓のために行われる野焼きとされ、これは犯罪と見なされているが、政府は取り締まりに苦慮している。
　ブラジルのアマゾンでは何か月も干ばつが続き、今月発表された政府のデータによると、昨年は過去１７年間で最多となる火災が発生した。
　ブラジル国立宇宙研究所（ＩＮＰＥ）によると、衛星画像では昨年１４万３２８件の火災が確認された。
　科学者は、森林破壊が続けば、アマゾンによる二酸化炭素（ＣＯ２）の排出量が吸収量を上回り、気候変動が加速すると警鐘を鳴らしている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/01/22-20:28）

Wildfires in Brazil last year consumed a total area larger than all of Italy, a monitor reported Wednesday, as the country continues to battle blazes often set by farmers and ranchers illegally expanding their territory.
Some 30.8 million hectares (119,000 square miles) of vegetation were burned in Brazil in 2024, a 79 percent increase from 2023, monitoring platform MapBiomas reported.
Fires in the Amazon, a crucial carbon sink for the rest of the world as well as a global hotspot of biodiversity, accounted for 58 percent of the damage.
The figures are discouraging news for the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who in November will host the UN COP30 climate conference in the Amazonian city of Belem.
The 2024 figures represent the largest area burned since 2019.
Some 8.5 million hectares of forest burned in 2024, compared to 2.2 million in 2023, and in the Amazon, fires took out more forest than grassland for the first time, according to the data.
This is a terrible indicator, because, once forests are burned, they become more susceptible to future fires, said Ane Alencar, of MapBiomas.
Climate change makes vegetation drier and thus more prone to burning.
But in Brazil, the main driver of the fires are ranchers and farmers who clear land for pasture and agriculture -- a crime the government struggles to contain.
Lula has made preserving the Amazon a priority of his government, following lax protections against human expansion into the territory under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
But in September, Lula admitted that the country was not 100% prepared to face a wave of forest fires that his government attributed to climate terrorism.
The Brazilian Amazon saw its highest number of fires in 17 years in 2024, government data published earlier this month showed, after the vast biome suffered months of a lengthy drought.
There were 140,328 fires detected by satellite imaging over the year, according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
That was 42 percent more than the 98,634 fires recorded in 2023 -- and the most since 2007, when 186,463 forest fires were seen.
Those figures, as well as Wednesday's, come after some hope last year when the INPE said that deforestation in the region had fallen by more than 30 percent in the 12-month period to August 2024.
Scientists warn that continued deforestation will put the Amazon on track to reach a point where it will emit more carbon than it absorbs, accelerating climate change.