In 2001, protected tropical forests entered a global wildfire study spanning 24 years. 23 years later, more than 4 million hectares had been destroyed by fire, twice the size of Wales, with annual losses roughly 9 times higher after 2016

More than 4 million hectares of protected tropical forest, an area roughly twice the size of Wales, were destroyed by wildfires between 2001 and 2024, according to a new University of Sheffield study.

Published in Global Change Biology, the study is the first to examine in detail how much protected tropical forest has been lost to wildfires worldwide and whether protected status actually reduces the risk of forests burning.