Brazil: a still high number of fires in the Amazon

The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon fell slightly in August, the month that traditionally marks the start of the dry season, while remaining close to the records set under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, according to official data released Wednesday.

Read alsoAmazonia: Brazil will not meet its target of reducing deforestation

Space agency INPE recorded 28,060 fires in the Amazon last month, a figure down 4.3% from August 2020, but well above the average of 18,000 fires in the same month in the decade leading up to the the far-right president came to power.

The lost area of ​​Lebanon

The head of state is promoting bills that would open up protected areas for mining and farming in the world's largest rainforest.

Under Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian part of the Amazon lost some 10,000 km2 of forest per year, the area of ​​a country like Lebanon, against 6,500 km2 per year in the previous decade.

Read also Brazil: 94% of deforestation in the Amazon is illegal

At the same time, the number of fires has risen sharply. “

Since 2019, the number of fires has reached absurd levels

,” said Cristiane Mazzetti, from the environmental NGO Greenpeace. "

It is as if the government has created a 'Bolsonaro standard' of destruction,

" she added in a statement, denouncing "

a retrograde view of development that runs counter to efforts to combat climate emergency

”.

The outbreaks multiply each year in the Amazon during the dry season from August to November, when farmers and land grabbers cut down trees and then burn them on the spot to clear cultivable land.

According to scientists, spontaneous fires are almost non-existent in the Amazon due to heavy rainfall.

In 2019, the first year of the Bolsonaro presidency, the sharp increase in the number of fires created great concern around the world, due to the essential role that the gigantic forest plays in preserving the planet's climate.

The INPE recorded 30,900 fires in August that year, against 10,421 in August 2018.

Fires "equivalent to those of 2019"

This year, notes Ane Alencar, director of IPAM, the environmental research institute on the Amazon, deforestation and fires "

are roughly equivalent to those of 2019

".

“

It's like getting used to these extremely high numbers

,” she says.

Conservationists are also worried about the sharp rise in fires in the Pantanal, south of the Amazon, which lost a quarter of its vegetation last year.

The Pantanal is currently facing a historic drought.