Amazon fires: how we make rainforest more flammable

Human disturbances are making the Amazon rainforest more flammable, according to researchers.

This is one of the conclusions of a two-year study of the Brazilian Amazon, which has revealed that even areas of protected forests are degraded by human activity, including logging and fragmentation - increasing the likelihood of wildfires.

While the Brazilian Amazon is protected from large-scale deforestation, this new study - published in the journal Nature - suggests that more effort is needed to "safeguard the hyper-diversity of tropical forest ecosystems".

Professor Jos Barlow, who explains the findings here, shared his team's findings, and exclusive footage they captured of Amazon wildfires, with BBC News.

Footage courtesy of A. Ronan, A. Lees and J Barlow. Video by Victoria Gill