Up in Smoke
A crisis is taking place in forests, where the latest fire seasons have been raging with unprecedented ferocity, from the Amazon to the Arctic. In April 2020 the number of fire alerts across the globe were up by 13% compared to the previous year, which was already a record year for fires. Persistent hotter and drier weather due to climate change and other human factors such as land conversion for agriculture and poor forest management are the main drivers behind the increase.
Currently bush fires burn over 25% of Zambia’s land area annually. This equates to nearly 20 million hectares burned each year.
