Nearly 3,000 forest fires were recorded in February in the Brazilian Amazon, a record for this month of the year since records began in 1999, authorities announced on Wednesday.
According to satellite images from the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), 2,940 fires were recorded during the month, 67% more than the 1,761 fires that were recorded in February 2007, the previous record.
The figure for February 2024 is four times higher than that recorded during the same month last year.
The largest rainforest on the planet is one of the world's most important ecosystems for stabilizing the global climate threatened by warming.
A historic drought between June and November
“The climatic factor certainly plays a fundamental role” in this outbreak of fires, which are concentrated in the north of the region, Ane Alencar, scientific director of the NGO Amazon Environmental Research Institute ( IPAM Amazonia).
“We have seen the Earth break record after record for temperature.
Every year is the hottest year, and it is in synergy with climatic phenomena,” she added.
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A historic drought hit the Amazon between June and November 2023, affecting millions of people across the Amazon basin, stoking massive wildfires, shrinking major waterways and wreaking catastrophic havoc on wildlife.
This environmental “stress,” said Ane Alencar, “produces all the conditions necessary for each fire to turn into a big fire.”
However, “the fires were probably started by people during their agricultural work,” believes this manager, whose structure is part of the Climate Observatory network.
The practice of fires by agro-trading players called into question
Some experts have suggested that the natural weather phenomenon El Niño was to blame for last year's drought in the Amazon.
But a study by scientists at the World Weather Attribution (WWA), published in January, concluded that climate change caused by carbon pollution emitted by the planet was the main culprit.
Returning to power in January 2023, left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was able to boast of a drastic drop in deforestation in one year.
His government calls into question the widespread practice of fires among agro-business players, to prepare the land for crops or livestock.
“There is no natural fire in the Amazon,” Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva said in October.