{"id":155682,"date":"2025-09-14T07:21:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T07:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155682\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T07:21:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T07:21:02","slug":"when-the-forests-burn-the-sickness-comes-how-protecting-trees-shields-millions-from-disease-amazon-rainforest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155682\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018When the forests burn, the sickness comes\u2019: how protecting trees shields millions from disease | Amazon rainforest"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Bolivian park ranger Marcos Uzquiano, the fallout from wildfires<\/a> in the Amazon goes far beyond the damage they do to wildlife and biodiversity. \u201cIt\u2019s devastating \u2013 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,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Marcos Uzquiano, pictured in 2016 at Madidi national park, says he feels emotionally empty after each forest fire. Photograph: Handout<\/p>\n

Uzquiano\u2019s experience at Beni Biosphere Reserve is reflected in new research<\/a> which suggests that preserving Amazonian forests helps to protect millions from disease. Analysing 20 years of data on 27 diseases \u2013 including malaria, Chagas disease and hantavirus \u2013 researchers found that municipalities in the Amazon biome near healthy forests on Indigenous lands across eight countries faced a lower risk of disease.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndigenous forests in the Amazon bring health benefits to millions,\u201d says Paula Prist, senior programme coordinator of the forests and grasslands team at the International Union for Conservation of Nature<\/a> (IUCN), and an author of the study.<\/p>\n

Ana Filipa Palmeirim, at the Federal University of Par\u00e1 in Brazil<\/a> and co-author of the study, says: \u201cEven when fires take place in remote forest areas, winds spread the pollution far and wide, creating deadly public health emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boys from the Indigenous Tsimane people climb papaya trees to pick fruit in the Bolivian Amazon. Photograph: Matthieu Paley<\/p>\n

The findings come during fire season<\/a> in the Amazon region, when seasonal blazes are driven by drought, the climate crisis and agricultural expansion, with large ranches and farms<\/a> using fire to clear land. The Amazon region has experienced record forest loss in recent years, with fires a crucial driver.<\/p>\n

Exposure to smoke from wildfires is known to be harmful to human health<\/a> and may be linked to conditions from cardiovascular disease<\/a> to cancer<\/a>. Scientists estimate they cause thousands of premature deaths<\/a> from lung cancer and cardiopulmonary disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need forests to be protected, not only for climate change mitigation but also for our own health,\u201d says Prist.<\/p>\n

Previous studies have shown<\/a> that Indigenous lands are largely forest-covered, especially when those territories are legally titled<\/a>, which researchers say is linked to Indigenous<\/a> land management practices<\/a>. The new study, published in Communications Earth and Environment, stresses that legal recognition of Indigenous lands is key.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndigenous-held lands with secure land tenure lose less tree cover, which helps keep forests intact and allows them to store more carbon and support higher biodiversity,\u201d says James MacCarthy, research associate at World Resources Institute\u2019s (WRI) Global Forest Watch, which was not involved in the study. \u201cSecuring Indigenous land rights is one of the most effective strategies<\/a> for protecting forests in the Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bolivian Amazon suffered record tropical primary forest loss driven by wildfires in 2024. Photograph: Matthieu Paley<\/p>\n

Another recent report by WRI and World Wildlife Fund<\/a>, authored by MacCarthy, underscores the critical role Indigenous lands play in conserving forests. \u201cBoth studies highlight the importance of ending deforestation and supporting Indigenous leadership, which is critical for reducing fire risk,\u201d says MacCarthy.<\/p>\n

Bolivia<\/a> had record tropical primary forest<\/a> loss driven by wildfires in 2024, ranking second only to Brazil<\/a> \u2013 a country eight times its size.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Global Dispatch<\/p>\n

Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Isabel Surub\u00ed Pesoa was displaced by fire and drought from her home in Bolivia. Photograph: Laura Barriga D\u00e1valos<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the forests burn, a big part of our lives burn too,\u201d says Isabel Surub\u00ed Pesoa, who was displaced from her home in an Indigenous territory in Bolivia\u2019s eastern lowlands as a result of fire and drought. \u201cThe forest is our home, it is where we get medicines, where we plant crops, where we get clean oxygen to breathe,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen the forest burns, the sicknesses come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her sister, Ver\u00f3nica Surub\u00ed Pesoa, says young people in her community of San Javier have died from lung complications after battling last year\u2019s fires, including a 26-year-old man. Several hours away in the town of Santa Ana de Velasco, nurse Wilmar Cristian Gonzales Ortiz says many young patients are now struggling with pneumonia and other respiratory problems after heavy smoke exposure last year.<\/p>\n

For Uzquiano, the impacts of fires go beyond physical health. \u201cEmotionally, we feel an emptiness after each forest fire, with only silence remaining after you see your forest turned to ash,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Isabel and Ver\u00f3nica Surub\u00ed Pesoa resettled in San Javier in Bolivia after wildfires forced them to leave their home in Monte Verde Indigenous territory. Photograph: Benjamin Swift\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Scientists say the Amazon is also important<\/a> for human life far beyond the tropics. Evapotranspiration from the Amazon is a critical water source for the central Andes of Bolivia and Peru, says Marcos Andrade Flores, an atmospheric physicist at the Universidad Mayor de San Andr\u00e9s in La Paz, Bolivia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you cut down the forest on a large scale, the transportation of moisture could destabilise and change to a dry system,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would be catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vicente Canare credits historic Indigenous marches for legal recognition of their territory. Photograph: Benjamin Swift\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The new study emphasises that legal recognition of Indigenous territories is key to enabling effective forest stewardship. \u201cOur parents and grandparents marched<\/a> to demand that our territories be respected, demanding security and land titles,\u201d says Vicente Canare, the secretary of land and territory at CPILAP<\/a>, an Indigenous organisation in Bolivia\u2019s north-western Amazon, referring to a series of 640km marches for Indigenous rights in the 1990s and early 2000s. \u201cIt is thanks to those marches that we can now decide how to best conserve our territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bolivia is in the middle of elections<\/a>, with a conservative and centre-right candidate set to head to a runoff in October<\/a>. With campaign promises<\/a> to eliminate communal property in favour of individual land titles, Indigenous communities worry they could lose territorial autonomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are essentially offering up our territory for sale,\u201d says Ver\u00f3nica. \u201cEverything could be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Cop30<\/a> UN climate summit slated to take place in Brazil this November, researchers hope the study will be an impetus for international collaboration. \u201cParticulate matter emissions due to forest fires, and their related health impacts, transcend national borders,\u201d says Florencia Sangermano, a co-author of the study at Clark University in the US. \u201cInternational collaborative frameworks that align forest protection, Indigenous stewardship and fire mitigation strategies across the Amazon biome are essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Reytar, a senior research associate at WRI\u2019s Land and Carbon Lab, says the benefits to ecosystems of titled Indigenous forests are significant. A 2016 report estimated that securing Indigenous land rights in Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia would generate at least $679bn<\/a> (\u00a3502bn) in carbon storage and other ecosystem services over two decades.<\/p>\n

Chiquitano forest in Bolivia has been cleared for cattle grazing. Photograph: Benjamin Swift\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding in the human health and disease prevention dimension would increase these values even further,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For communities in the Amazon, the link between preserving forests and protecting health is clear, says Uzquiano. \u201cYou don\u2019t need studies to know that people here are joyful \u2013 we live from nature\u2019s benefits,\u201d he says, warning that research alone won\u2019t protect that future. \u201cIf we want to strengthen the resilience of Indigenous peoples, they must be matched with real programmes and projects.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Bolivian park ranger Marcos Uzquiano, the fallout from wildfires in the Amazon goes far beyond the damage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-155682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}