Climate evidence for Loss & Damage in the context of Wildfires in Amazonia and Pantanal Biomes

Across the world, extreme wildfire events are intensifying, and their cascading impacts on ecosystems, human health, economies, and livelihoods are expanding. Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and more frequent heatwaves driven by anthropogenic climate change, combined with land cover change and inadequate land management, are increasing wildfire risk, occurrence, intensity, and frequency worldwide. Despite growing scientific evidence that climate change is amplifying wildfire risk, the impacts of wildfires remain largely absent from international climate policy debates, particularly within the Loss & Damage (L&D) agenda established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In September 2025, representatives of local volunteer and community fire brigades, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), wildfire and climate scientists, policymakers, and climate finance experts convened in Brasilia, Brazil, for a multi-stakeholder workshop aimed at identifying critical gaps in wildfire governance, funding mechanisms, and justice-oriented approaches to climate risk. During the meeting, we discussed the attribution analysis of the 2024 fire seasons in Amazonia and Pantanal following the methodology of the State of Wildfires report (https://stateofwildfires.com/). We found that burned areas were, on average, 20 times larger in Amazonia and 50 times larger in the Pantanal due to human-induced climate change.

Testimonies from IPLCs, shared during meetings before and throughout the Brasilia workshop, highlighted profound changes consistent with scientific findings. Participants reported shifts in the timing and intensity of the fire season, a lengthening dry season, worsening health conditions, increased food insecurity and deleterious cultural impact. The loss of Indigenous and community-managed lands, alongside the erosion of traditional patch-based fire practices that historically helped limit fire spread and maintain landscape connectivity, further exacerbates wildfire impacts and vulnerability.

The escalating impacts of wildfire activity, intensified by anthropogenic climate change, are generating substantial economic and non-economic losses that disproportionately affect already vulnerable populations who contributed little to climate change. Recognizing wildfires as a core component of the Loss and Damage framework is therefore not only a scientific necessity but also a matter of climate justice.

This work is part of an ongoing effort under the Building Approaches to fund local Solutions with climate Evidence (BASE; https://baseinitiative.net/). The Initiative explores ways to meaningfully combine the lived experience and knowledge of local and Indigenous communities with climate and wildfire science to better inform policy and decision-making processes. By doing so, BASE contributes to the transformation of the climate finance system - particularly in the adaptation and L&D agendas - so that it is more just, inclusive, and accessible to frontline communities.