When the fires come, they don’t come alone. They have already been preceded by deforestation – which can be clear cut, with the removal of all vegetation, or deforestation in which only a few trees are cut down, making satellite registration difficult. According to an analysis by WWF-Brazil, 31% of the fires in the Amazon recorded until August last year were located in areas that were still forest until July 2018.
Despite the reduction in the number of fires outbreaks in September, compared to the data for the same month of previous years, the accumulated result for the year has increased by 42%, compared to 2018. And, deforestation – the first stage of the entire process – remains high. Monitoring and inspection are necessary so that this year’s fire problem does not repeat itself – or gets worse – in the next dry season.
Subtitles written based on analysis by Ricardo Mello, manager for the Amazon at WWF-Brazil.
This photo has components that are common in land grabbing situations. Note that part of the land has been removed at the edge of the area that is being burned – it is a feature called firebreak, used to prevent the fire from spreading. One detail: there is a fence in the middle of the path of the firebreak and this indicates that whoever is promoting the burning has resources to surround the area and that there is a concern to delimit ownership. Location: south of the city of Itaituba and east of BR 163 road.
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
Closer view of the previous photo: note that not all trees were felled for burning, which signals a slower process of degradation of the area. Thus, without the complete clearing of vegetation, monitoring satellites have a more difficult task in detecting deforestation. Location: south of the city of Itaituba and east of BR 163 road.
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
From January to September 2019, 66,750 fire outbreaks were recorded – the number is 42% higher than in the same period in 2018 (46,968). In some states, the situation was even more severe, as in Roraima, with a 132% increase in that number. Region of the city of Novo Progresso.
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
Closer view of photo 3. The whitest smoke is a sign that the material that is burning is damp – and may indicate that the man-made fire has escaped control and has entered the more dense and humid parts of the forest , or that the area was not properly prepared (with the previous cutting and drying of the trees).
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
In the last week of September 2019, a WWF-Brazil team flew over the southern region of Pará and northern Mato Grosso, between the cities of Itaituba, Novo Progresso, São Félix do Xingu and Guarantã do Norte. The team verified that the Amazon was still burning. Between the cities of Guarantã and Itaituba, in a period of 3 hours, 18 smoke points were observed.
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
The cities in the southern region of Pará are included in the ranking of places with the highest number of fires – the entire southern portion of the Amazon biome is under intense pressure from deforestation and land grabbing.
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
In this detail of photos 5 and 6, a poetic record of the destruction. Work by photographer Araquém Alcântara, with whom WWF-Brazil partnered to record the burning and destruction of the Amazon. With 50 years of experience, Araquém has visited the region more than 30 times, recording the nature and people of the Amazon.
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
Picture taken from the WWF-Brazil overflight in the southern region of Pará between September 23 and 24, 2019. The flames still burns in the clearings opened by deforestation. The total area of deforestation alerts in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019 in the first 12 days of September covered 7,129 km2. It grew considerably when compared to the average of the last ten years (increase of 148%).
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
Burning is used to clean the area, since it reduces the volume of material resulting from the cutting of trees – and leaves the land free for agriculture or livestock. When the material is set on fire, there is also a short-term benefit in fertilizing the soil. Cutting, burning and placing cattle in the pasture is a strategy often used for future proof of land ownership in unclaimed native lands (public lands without destination).
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil
Burning is part of the agricultural practice in the region. Even after felling and burning the area for pasture, fire is used in the same area to renew the pasture or even to “clean it up”. The fire caused by human action happens seasonally in the Amazon when conditions are present (dry material to be burned and low air humidity). However, in 2019, deforestation records led to record fires. The warning that must be kept is: the rains arrives, but deforestation does not stop. The forest is still in danger.
Credits: © Araquém Alcântara/WWF-Brazil