Severe wildfires affecting El Cajas National Park in Ecuador

In 2024, Ecuador was hit by a series of devastating forest fires, exacerbated by the worst drought in sixty years. In mid-November, local authorities declared a national state of emergency for 60 days, mobilising resources to fight the fires and tackle the energy crisis caused by the drought.

The province of Azuay, home to Ecuador's third largest city, Cuenca, was particularly affected, with a total of 767 fires burning more than 14,000 hectares of vegetation between January and November. The Cajas, one of the country's most important national parks and the main source of fresh water in Azuay province, has been severely affected by the fires, as visible in this false-colour image acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 1 December 2024. 

Data retrieved by Copernicus Sentinel satellites remains a critical resource for tracking wildfires and assessing their impact on natural reserves across the world.