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The Brazilian Pantanal reached 15,756 fires yesterday this year, the highest number of fires since 1998, when the Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) began recording figures.
Compared to 2005, the worst year in the historical series so far this period, the number of accumulated outbreaks in 2020 is 56% higher.
Only in the first half of September, the number of outbreaks detected by Inpe is almost double than in the same month of 2019. In the accumulated result of January and September 16, the fire outbreaks increased 208% compared to the same last year, according to Inpe.
In the midst of the fires, the indigenous fauna – one of the most diverse in the world, with 1,200 different species of animals, 36 threatened with extinction – is the one that suffers the most. Jaguars, snakes, monkeys, snakes and even alligators populate the images of the environmental disaster caused by the fire. Biologist Rogério Rossi, from the Federal University of Mato Grosso, says that at least a thousand animals have already been burned to death.
The biome has broken records after record fires this year and the backlash started late. Only in August did the federal government attempt to organize a reaction and planes were dispatched and brigade members were hired to fight the fires.
The fire has already devastated 15% of the region, with 2.3 million hectares in what is the largest wetland in the world. The fire has already destroyed a shelter for blue macaws, an endangered animal, and reached the jaguar’s protection areas.
In interviews, the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, the Vice President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão (PRTB), and President Jair Bolsonaro himself (without a party) attribute the disaster in the region to a combination of factors that would be almost a coincidence . : a drought stronger than previous years and an accumulation of dry vegetation, which would catch fire more easily.
In August, Salles agreed with farmers, during a visit to Poconé, that a ban on controlled burning, which would clean up dried grass, could be one reason for the lack of control this year.
However, the Federal Police are investigating five farmers in the region on suspicion of having deliberately started the fire in remote areas, within environmental protection areas, with the aim of expanding pasture areas. The five own areas where the fires started.
The government is now betting on the rains to remedy the situation, which is still out of control. However, the rainy season begins even in November.
