The biome’s water surface fell by 3% in 2024; Pantanal plain had 61% of the flooded area below the historical average
The Pantanal is facing the driest period in the last 40 years, according to a survey by . The biome’s water surface decreased by 3% in 2024, one of the lowest rates since the beginning of the historical series, in 1985.
According to the report ‘Panorama of the Water Surface in Brazil’, published in April 2025, the Pantanal plain had 61% of its flooded surface below the historical average. In 2024, the biome had 365,678 hectares of water surface, one of the smallest extensions recorded. Here is the study (PDF – 17 MB).
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Compared to the flood period observed in 2018, the Pantanal was 52% drier in 2024. The water surface, which was in 1985, fell to 3% last year.
The drought also affected the biome’s flood cycle. In 2024, the Pantanal did not record a period of flooding, the Paraguay River reached a maximum level of 1.50 meters, below the overflow level of 4 meters.
The extension of the dry period makes the biome more prone to the incidence and spread of fires. In 2024, around 2.2 million hectares burned, which makes the year the 3rd with the highest number of fire outbreaks since the beginning of the series, behind only 1999 (2.7 million hectares) and 2020 (2.5 million hectares).
According to the survey ‘Annual maps of land cover and use in Brazil’, published in August 2025, the frequency of flooded areas has decreased every decade. In the 1980s, around 1.6 million hectares remained flooded, while in the last decade, the number fell to 460 thousand hectares, a reduction of 75%. Here is the study (PDF – 23 MB)
In 40 years, Brazil lost 12% of its wetlands, around 4.6 million hectares of floodable forests, swampy fields and mangroves. The survey also reveals that the loss of natural vegetation and the expansion of pasture and mining areas have increased the vulnerability of the biome.
In the last 40 years, the pasture area has quadrupled, from around 570 thousand hectares in 1985 to 2.3 million hectares in 2024. Mining was the human activity that grew the most proportionally in the last decade, with an increase of 60% in the occupied area.
Between 1985 and 2004, the biome had already lost more than 1 million hectares of native vegetation, mainly savanna and forest formations, which gave way to areas of extensive livestock farming. In the following years, the reduction in natural floods favored woody densification, a process in which shrub species expand over fields and pasture areas, modifying the fire regime and local biodiversity.
