Anthropic introduction of fire

Extract from the Paramo Fire Atlas displaying spatial and temporal distribution of anthropic introduction of fires from 1985 to 2022. (Obando-Cabrera et al., 2025)

Surrounding communities rely on the paramo areas for Cultivation and livestock farming. Fire is a main tool of land use conversion. Converting the land for these purposes causes significant ecosystemic pressure, through habitat loss, introduction of invasive species, and agricultural runoff, which contribute to soil structure disturbances and impact groundwater availability (Correa et al., 2020).

References

Correa, A., Ochoa-Tocachi, B. F., Birkel, C., Ochoa-Sanchez, A., Zogheib, C., Tovar, C., Buytaert ,W. (2020) 'A concerted research effort to advance the hydrological understanding of tropical páramos', Hydrological Processes, 34(24), pp. 4609-4626. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13904 (Accessed 12 January 2026).

Obando-Cabrera, L., Diaz-Timote, J. J., Bastarrika, A., Celiz, N., Hantson, S. (2025) 'The Paramo Fire Atlas: quantifying burned area and trends across the Tropical Andes', Environmental Research Letters, 20(5). Available at: DOI https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adc8ba (Accessed 12 Jan 2026).