Fire burns 29.7 mln hectares in Brazil this year

Around 29.7 million hectares of land were burned in Brazil between January and November 2024, marking the largest area in six years and almost a twofold increase from a year earlier, according to a local study released on Monday, Xinhua reports. 

MapBiomas, a collaborative network that conducts annual mapping of land cover and use in Brazil, said the 2024 burnings primarily affected forests, highlighting the need to curb deforestation and control fire use.

According to MapBiomas, 57 percent of the burned area was in the Amazon region, where fires ravaged 16.9 million hectares, including 7.6 million hectares of forests.

"Fires primarily impacted native vegetation, with forests making up a quarter of the burned areas in Brazil. Besides, grasslands were the most affected agricultural zone, with 6.4 million hectares burned between January and November 2024," it said.

MapBiomas is a collaborative network built by universities, non-governmental organizations and technology companies, focused on monitoring land transformations in Brazil.

Since the beginning of the year, the global price of Arabica coffee has increased by more than 80%. In Kazakhstan, this beverage is quite popular, but since coffee is not produced domestically, its prices depend entirely on imports. In this analytical report, a Kazinform News Agency correspondent will examine how coffee prices are expected to change in the global market and the potential impact on Kazakhstani consumers in 2025.