The increased burning this year means that ground fires, which may cover hundreds or even thousands of square kilometers, also increased, even though they do not appear in the satellite images. This means that a similar area, unrecorded by satellite images, is being degraded through selective logging and ground fires annually. The authors conclude that decline in biomass in forest fragments could be a significant, and uncounted, source of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Much of the forest of the eastern and southern Amazon, which depends on deep-soil water reserves to stay green in the dry season, is becoming flammable because of logging and drought. Hitherto, virgin forest has prevented the spread of fires because it was too moist to burn.
Climate models predict a slightly drier climate in tropical areas under global warming.
While increased burning involves hundreds of thousands of actors spread across a continental region, much can be done to address the problem. One half of the area burned in 1994 and 1995 resulted from accidental fires . These fires have substantial costs for small and large farmers alike and benefit no one. INPE has promised to release data for 1995 and 1996 by end of the year. Increased burning, and new research results on the effects of fire, however, unequivocally demonstrate that the rate of deforestation is no longer the only important indicator of threat to the biological integrity of the Amazon forest.