Fires increase 59% in areas of reduced deforestation: a problem which must be addressed if REDD is to actually reduce emissions.

Although monitored deforestation rates in the Amazon may be reduced, fires and the associated carbon emissions continue to increase because of cryptic land-use processes.

A satellite analysis of deforestation and forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon has showed that fire occurrences have increased by 59% in areas where deforestation has reportedly slowed. The report attributes these trends to the widespread use of slash-and-burn to clear secondary forest in Amazonia.

Reducing deforestation slows, but does not stop the continuous expansion of the cumulative deforested area. Forest landscapes are also becoming more fragmented, causing an increase in fire susceptibility and exposing it to leakage of accidental fires from adjacent farms.

This leads to a permanent enlargement of forest edges and secondary forest cover. Borders between forests and agriculture are more susceptible to fires lit by farmers who traditionally use fire to manage regrowth on agricultural land.

Burning secondary forest under the canopy allows farmers to plant pasture undetected by PRODES, the satellite system that monitors deforestation rates. This, the report suggests, could offer an explanation of the reverse trend observed between deforestation and fire.

Yet as the process releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the land in theory, still counts as forest eligible to generate REDD credits.

The report calls for sustainable, fire-free land management to be adopted in the REDD mechanism, to avoid negating carbon savings achieved by avoided deforestation.