Salles relates the lack of “cold fire” with the increase in burning in the Pantanal; experts refute argument | Nature

On Tuesday (15), Salles shared a video that circulated on social media and was used to accuse the ICMBio brigades of setting a criminal arson. The minister released the images to defend that the controlled use of “cold fire” against the accumulation of organic matter is a correct technique. In an interview with Rádio Bandeirantes, also on Tuesday, the minister reiterated the defense of “preventive” burning.

“When you spend two years practically without allowing controlled burning, the use of cold fire, which is what they call it in the Pantanal, to eliminate the excess of organic matter that is deposited over time, when you do not allow it. It happens, and fire it starts at once like now, the volume of mass burning is much higher, “said Salles.

The ban on the use of controlled fire has been in effect since 2014 and runs from August 1 to October 31. Last year the term was extended, with the authorization of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment (Ibama), due to the adverse weather conditions that would prevent the control of fires.

Vinícius Silgueiro, forestry engineer and coordinator of the Territorial Intelligence Center of the Centro de Vida Institute (ICV), an organization that works to protect the Pantanal, says that the prohibition of burning material before the dry season is a cause of intensification of the problem, but not the source.

“There is no direct relationship between the accumulation of organic matter and the existence of fire in the Pantanal. There is a relationship with the intensity of the fire, you know, but this is not the main cause. The accumulation of organic matter is not the main cause. of fires ”, says Silgueiro.

“The main cause is anthropic (human) actions. And then recently, in the last few years, the rain has become much more concentrated in some periods of the year and regions that should be flooded, still flooded or humid, in this dry season. “They are already totally exposed and dry and with accumulation of organic matter. So, when the fire spreads, these areas are affected and make the fire have a much higher intensity”.

Relationship between drought and deforestation

The Pantanal drought is related to another area that is being destroyed by deforestation and fires in Brazil: the Amazon. Researchers also link the increase in fires in the Pantanal with deforestation: it is from the Amazon rainforest that most of the moisture that feeds the biome of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul comes from, they explain. The numbers confirm the problem: areas of deforestation increased 34.5% in the one-year period, from August 2019 to July 2020.

“This low amount of rain meant that this year we had the lowest flooding of the last 47 years. And, according to our estimates, it is very likely that we also have the highest drought in the same period,” said Carlos Padovani, from Embrapa.

The forest throws into the air the humidity that the currents carry until they reach the Andes. Then it returns, distributing rain to the entire region that goes to the south of Brazil. When this green massif begins to fragment, it doesn’t release much moisture and it doesn’t rain in the Midwest.

PF investigates the source of the fire

In addition to the lack of rain, the Federal Police are investigating the origin of the fire: five farmers are suspected of the fires that destroyed 25,000 hectares of the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the Serra do Amolar region, in Corumbá. None of them were arrested.

Operation Maitáá, which means fire in the Guató language, was launched on Monday (14). During the execution of the search and seizure orders, one of the peasants was arrested on the spot for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

Farmers are suspected of having set native vegetation on fire to turn it into pasture for livestock. “The native forest is extracted, and there is the pasture for the cattle,” explained the delegate of the operation.

Comparison with California fires

During Tuesday’s interview, Salles also said that the fire in California, in the United States, “is certainly much bigger than the fire in the Pantanal.”

“I don’t know how to measure what is happening on the west coast of the United States, but it is certainly much bigger than the fire in the Pantanal. So much so that you see practically millions of Americans moving to escape the fires on the west coast. Fire much greater than the proportion of the Pantanal, only that Brazil puts once again in this exhibition that people are leaving California aside ”.

Rômulo Batista, spokesman for Greenpeace, explains that the comparison presented by the minister cannot be made.

“That specific vegetation in California evolved with fire. Some species even need fire to be able to complete their life cycle, for example, so that the seeds lose their lethargy, this is done naturally with fire ”, he explained.

“The newspapers I consulted speak of about 3.5 million acres affected there in California. This, converted into hectares, is equivalent to approximately 1,400,000. By way of comparison, and then the minister disappears again with the truth, only until the end of August in the Pantanal 1 million 864 thousand hectares were lost, destroyed by fire, not to mention the last 15 days of September ”, he added.

Damage to biodiversity

Salles said, however, that the “burning in the Pantanal is very strong” and admitted the damage to biodiversity.

“In fact, the damage to biodiversity, our fauna, is great. The flora, the part of the vegetation, is recomposed. It is even the dynamics of certain biomes that are made up. Now it cannot be a fire of gigantic proportions. that’s being. That is why we are fighting, ”he said.

According to Silgueiro, the recovery that Salles dictates will depend, of course, on the reduction of human action in the coming years and also on the type of vegetation. According to the forest engineer, the Pantanal has areas of native fields, it has areas of Cerrado, it has areas of forest, and each of these types of vegetation has different regeneration conditions.

“Estimates from the National Wetland Institute show that some areas can take up to 3 to 4 decades to return to the conditions they were in before the fire.”

VIDEOS: fires in the Pantanal