Amazon Rainforest Fires: What the Long-term Damage Could Be
"When forest land is cleared by fire for agricultural production, we lose it forever," said Meg Symington of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Brazil has experienced a large spike in the number of wildfires this year, with more than half of them occurring in the Amazon rainforest.
The fires have affected the northern states of Roraima, Acre, Rondônia, Mato Grosso and Amazonas particularly badly, according to data collected by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
But what could the long-term damage of these fires be for the world's largest tropical rainforest—60 percent of which is found in Brazil?
Ricardo Mello,
