Firefighters combat forest blazes in Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetlands, as fires in the region have nearly tripled in 2020 compared to the same period last year.

The number of forest fires in the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetlands, has nearly tripled in 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to satellite data released Thursday.

Brazil's national space agency, INPE, identified 3,506 fires from January 1 to July 22 in the Pantanal, a 192 percent increase from 2019 and the most for the period since records began in 1998.