When the forests burn, the sickness comes': how protecting trees shields millions from disease

"For Bolivian park ranger Marcos Uzquiano, the fallout from wildfires in the Amazon goes far beyond the damage they do to wildlife and biodiversity. It's devastating it undermines all the functions and benefits that forests provide to Indigenous communities. They affect the air we breathe and cause respiratory infections, eye irritation and throat inflammation, he says. Marcos Uzquiano, pictured in 2016 at Madidi national park, says he feels emotionally empty after each forest fire."

"Analysing 20 years of data on 27 diseases including malaria, Chagas disease and hantavirus researchers found that municipalities in the Amazon biome near healthy forests on Indigenous lands across eight countries faced a lower risk of disease. The study reveals a reduction in respiratory and cardiovascular problems linked to wildfire smoke, as well as diseases spread when deforestation brings humans into closer contact with animals and insects."

Wildfires in the Amazon harm more than wildlife; they undermine the functions and benefits that forests provide to Indigenous communities and cause respiratory infections, eye irritation and throat inflammation. Analysis of 20 years of data on 27 diseases across eight countries indicates municipalities near healthy Indigenous forests faced lower disease risk. The protective effects include reductions in respiratory and cardiovascular problems from wildfire smoke and fewer zoonotic and vector-borne infections linked to deforestation-driven human–animal contact. Seasonal blazes are driven by drought, climate change and agricultural expansion, while recent years have seen record forest loss across the Amazon.

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