A drone view shows a burned forest after a forest fire in Henri Pittier National Park, in Maracay, Venezuela March 30, 2024.SAO PAULO/MARACAY, Venezuela — Venezuela is battling a record number of wildfires, according to data released on Monday , as a climate change-driven drought plagues the Amazon rainforest region.
"Everything is indicating we're going to see other events of catastrophic fires — megafires that are huge in size and height," Machado said. "I am shocked, if not to say alarmed, by this fire," said Carlos Carruido Perez, who lives nearby. "I had never seen a fire of this magnitude and this damage to the environment."
In Venezuela's Amazon region further south, there are 5,690 active fires as of late March, according to Nasa data. That accounts for more than half of all the blazes burning in the entire Amazon across nine countries. Venezuela and Roraima have seen only 10 per cent to 25 per cent of their normal rainfall levels in the last 30 to 90 days, said Michael Coe, director of the tropics programme at the US-based Woodwell Climate Research Centre.
"People burn the same, but the drought is more extreme. The vegetation is drier, the rains are scarce and we see the consequences: a small burn turns into a fire of great magnitude," Lozada added.