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Environment

Amazon fires have affected almost all the region's endangered species

By Adam Vaughan

1 September 2021

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Andre Penner/AP/Shutterstock (10753127a) Fire consumes land deforested by cattle farmers near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil Amazon Fires, Novo Progresso, Brazil - 23 Aug 2020

Deforested land in the Amazon region on fire in 2020

Andre Penner/AP/Shutterstock

Almost all the endangered species in the Amazon rainforest have seen their habitats negatively affected by fires over the past two decades, researchers have found.

Home to a tenth of the world’s known species and around 40 per cent of the planet’s remaining tropical forests, the Amazon ecosystem hasn’t evolved to cope with the fires that are often set within the rainforest to clear land for cattle farming.

A team led by Xiao Feng at Florida State…

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