Health consequences of deforestation and wildfires in the Amazon: a scoping review

The Amazon is crucial for global environmental balance, including climate regulation, yet deforestation and wildfires increasingly threaten human health. This scoping review aims to map and synthesize evidence on the human health impacts of deforestation and wildfires in the Amazon and to identify key knowledge gaps. Empirical studies linking deforestation or wildfires to human health outcomes in the Amazon, published up to December 2023, were eligible for inclusion. Comprehensive searches were conducted in Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, supplemented by reference backward citation tracking. Data were extracted and synthesized to categorize findings by study characteristics (e.g., geographic scope, methodology) and health outcomes. The review included 108 studies identifying 41 distinct health outcomes. Malaria was the most researched, in 43.5% of the studies, showing strong associations with forest loss, alongside leishmaniasis (American tegumentary leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis), evaluated in 13.9% of them. Biomass burning was linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, particularly in Brazil, and was associated with genotoxicity and mutagenicity. Land-use change is therefore a critical driver of public health vulnerability in the Amazon. There is an urgent need for integrative analytical models and multisectoral policies within the One Health framework to mitigate these complex impacts.