# Forest loss to fire: chart provenance

- Article: *Which countries lose the most forest to fire?*
- Source: World Resources Institute, Global Forest Review, *Forest Degradation*,
  updated 29 April 2026.
- Source URL: https://gfr.wri.org/forest-condition-indicators/forest-degradation
- Source chart: *The 10 countries with the highest tree cover loss from fire,
  2001–2025*.
- Accessed and visually verified: 28 October 2026.
- Underlying research: University of Maryland's global forest loss due to fire
  dataset, Tyukavina et al. (2022), updated through 2025.
- Dataset: https://www.glad.geog.umd.edu/dataset/Fire_GFL/
- Methods: https://gfr.wri.org/data-methods

## Values and precision

The five values were transcribed from the source chart's displayed labels:
Russia 65, Canada 46, United States 14, Brazil 14 and Australia 7 million hectares.
These are **rounded chart values**, not full-precision observations or a raw data
export. The United States and Brazil round to the same number; their source
ordering is retained. No extra precision, error bars or derived percentage
rankings are implied.

The article's global total of 162 million hectares and nearly 90% combined share
are reported directly by WRI, rather than calculated from these rounded values.

This measures tree cover lost directly to fire over 2001–2025. It excludes fires
that do not substantially remove tree canopy and the burning of trees already
felled. It includes natural and planted tree cover, and does not measure permanent
deforestation, net forest change or all vegetation burned. Country totals are not
normalised by forest area.

## Original figures

`country-loss.svg`, `country-loss-mobile.svg` and `cover.png` are original NuraGaze
charts of the attributed values, not reproductions of WRI's graphic. Visible
credit accompanies the article and article cards. The PNG also includes source,
period, unit and rounding notes. `country-loss.csv` contains the same rounded
figures, with the period and unit in its column heading.

The single source for the chart and HTML table is `app/lib/forestFireLoss.json`.
Rebuild with `python3 scripts/generate-forest-fire-loss-chart.py` in an environment
containing Matplotlib. Plotting tools are not website runtime dependencies.