06/18/2024 – 7:04
The fire season started earlier this year and found the biome drier than normal and still recovering after the catastrophe recorded in 2020. The Pantanal may be facing the most destructive fire season. In the first two weeks of June, the number of fire outbreaks is almost 700% higher than the same period in 2020, the year of the worst crisis so far.
The fire arrived earlier in 2024 and caught some combat teams in the hiring phase. In the official calendar, the temporary brigades hired by the Ministry of the Environment begin to go out into the field in June and face the most critical phase from August to October.
“The dry season is just beginning and we are already seeing the number of outbreaks breaking out. The tendency is to get worse from now on. The scenario at the moment is very worrying and could be worse than 2020”, Gustavo Figueroa, director of SOS Pantanal, a civil society organization that works to conserve the biome, told DW.
An ordinance published at the end of April by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) authorized the specialized center Prevfogo to hire federal brigades to prevent and combat forest fires. Questioned by DW, the organization did not inform until the end of this report how many are currently operating in the Pantanal.
In protecting a corridor
Figueroa has just returned from days of fighting the flames. He accompanied the six members of the permanent brigade created by the Instituto Homem Pantaneiro (IHP). At the moment, the group operates in a strategic biodiversity corridor for the future of the biome. The size of 300,000 football fields, this corridor is located in an area that covers the border between Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso and the border with Bolivia, close to Serra do Amolar.
The fire has already reached the edges of this place, which is considered a refuge for wildlife. More than a hundred species of animals live there – alligators, jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, agoutis and giant armadillos are some of them. Along the way, Figueroa photographed some charred animals.
“The combat routine is complicated. We leave at dawn, a tractor moves the equipment to the fire line, it’s a two-hour journey. It’s very exhausting”, says Figueroa, management and conservation specialist at SOS Pantanal.
From Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, where IHP is based, it is a six-hour boat ride across the Paraguay River to the region. The municipality concentrated the largest number of fires in the country in the first two weeks of June, with 32% of the total.
After the catastrophic scenario of 2020, the IHP created the permanent brigade. That year, fires consumed 30% of the Brazilian portion of the Pantanal and it became clear to the organization’s members that knowing how to fight the fire was not enough – it was necessary to better understand the territory, know where to get water among the flames and which paths could be taken. used by animals on escape routes.
“The brigade works with communities to provide support, helps with maintenance near rural schools to keep the area safe, promotes environmental and educational actions. But at the moment everything is at a standstill, the focus is on fighting the fire”, explains Rodolfo César de Sousa, who works in communications at IHP.
Weakened Pantanal
The early fire season in 2024 finds a Pantanal still recovering. In 2020, large fires in the biome across the country consumed 43% of places never before burned and caused mass mortality of wildlife. 39 thousand square kilometers were affected by the flames. A study published in Scientific Reports, from the Nature group, estimated the death of 17 thousand vertebrate animals as a result of the catastrophe.
Furthermore, the last rainy period ended with little water in the region’s rivers. Monitoring carried out by the Brazilian Geological Survey (SGB) shows that, of the entire volume of rain expected, 60% were confirmed. The map showing the regions under drought produced by the National Water Agency (ANA) warns of critical areas in the Pantanal.
“This year, the Paraguay River did not overflow. In other words, it did not flood the floodable fields that are normally covered with water in the Pantanal. Then all this vegetation dries out and a lot of biomass becomes available for fire”, says Danilo Bandini, researcher at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS).
Dryer, any spark can start a huge fire. In the Pantanal, 95% of them are caused by man, either accidentally or intentionally. And a study recently published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology showed that life may have serious difficulties returning to the devastated site. Of the eight species of mammals researched in Serra do Amolar, six showed changes in habitat use or occupation.
“Ocelots, peccary, giant armadillos, agouti, wild deer and tapirs had decreasing occupancy after fires. Habitat use remained stable only for the puma. The giant armadillo, a rare and threatened species in Brazil, has experienced the sharpest decline in occupation”, comments Grasiela Porfírio, scientific technical coordinator of projects at the Instituto Homem Pantaneiro and one of the authors of the article.
The threatened biome has a particularity: more than 90% of it is within private properties. A small slice of the Pantanal, 4.68%, is protected within conservation units. This is why the creation of Private Natural Heritage Reserves (RPPNs), those created voluntarily by rural landowners, is important.
Permanent surveillance
For Gustavo Figueroa, from SOS Pantanal, air support is important to transport brigade members in the most remote areas. “It would make combat easier and save brigade members time and energy. If the fight does not start quickly, it is almost impossible to control once the fire reaches large proportions,” he comments.
One of the recommendations given in an article published by Danilo Bandini after the traumatic experience of 2020 included the formation of more brigades to operate throughout the year, and not just during the dry period.
“This way, they could do a better prevention job to reduce these large fires. Integrated fire management, including prescribed burning, is one of the most important prevention tools, but there are others, such as environmental education”, says the UFMS researcher.
According to Bandini, the historical series of data collected in the Pantanal is limited, which makes it difficult to analyze the influence of climate change on the biome. On the other hand, researchers observe that even phenomena that have a natural cycle, such as drought, are more intense and have a longer drought.
At the same time, another 30 civil society organizations proposed that the federal and state governments seek assistance outside the country. The alternative suggested in a letter delivered to the authorities suggests the European Union Emergency Response Coordination Center as a possible partner.
“The international community followed what happened to the Pantanal in 2020. While it is still recovering from the devastation of that year, once again we are seeing alarming numbers of fires at the beginning of the dry season, which is extremely worrying. We are willing to collaborate with Brazilian organizations in their request to the European Union to prevent a greater tragedy from occurring”, says Steve Trent, president and founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).
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