09/08/2024 – 19:12
ICMBio, Ibama and the Goiás Fire Department are working to contain the flames in one of the main areas of preservation of the Cerrado. The teams’ work is hampered by the difficult access to the fire line. A fire in the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park has already destroyed 10 thousand hectares of the biome, the administration of the local preservation unit reported this Sunday (09/08). The park, in Goiás, is one of the main areas of preservation of the Cerrado.
In a statement, the park administration said it did not know “what or who” caused the fire, which started last Thursday. The statement said that the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and PrevFogo, from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), are working together with the Goiás Military Fire Department to contain the flames.
The teams reported that two ICMBio planes are operating in the region. The head of the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park (PNCV), Nayara Stachesk, told the G1 news portal that the planes are used to drop water, while the firefighters work on the fire line.
The Contrafogo Network, which coordinates volunteer brigades, and the Cerrado Bioregional Institute (IBC) are also working in the region. According to Stachesk, there are more than 55 firefighters and volunteers working to combat the flames.
“There are around 25 ICMBio firefighters, 25 from PrevVogo, five military firefighters and two volunteers on the line. Another five volunteers from Aliança da Terra are expected to join today,” he said.
“The line is in a difficult-to-access location. We are not leaving the line unattended, but this is very tiring for the firefighters, who have to walk 10, 20 kilometers to reach the fire,” said the head of the PNCV. She explained that the Fire Department was unable to send a helicopter because the aircraft crashed in July of this year.
Fire should increase
The fire line is located between the so-called Parallel 14 and Simão Correa. Traffic on the GO-118 highway, which connects Alto Paraíso de Goiás to Teresina de Goiás, was interrupted on Saturday.
Even though some fires in the region have already been put out, Stachesk warns that the fire has not been controlled and is expected to continue growing.
The Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, known as the “cradle of waters”, is at risk of losing around 34% of its river flow by 2050, according to a study carried out by the Cerrados Institute.
According to monitoring by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), as of this Saturday, 48,966 fire outbreaks had been detected in the biome in 2024, numbers that are second only to the Amazon, with 79,175 outbreaks.
The record drought in Brazil and possible criminal actions have caused forest fires in recent weeks to accumulate 152,383 outbreaks, a number 103% higher than in the same period in 2023.
rc (EBC/ots)
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