Canada’s rate of forest loss from wildfire quintupled in 2023 from previous year, research finds

Canada lost a record 8.6 million hectares of forest last year – more than 90 per cent of that owing to wildfire, according to an analysis released Thursday.The satellite-derived data, produced by researchers at the University of Maryland, showed that the swaths of forest burned in Canada in 2023 represented one of the largest anomalies witnessed since they began collecting the data globally in 2001. They dubbed it the world’s “most concerning fire story” of the year.