Brazilian Fires Burn Like No Other

The world´s lung was catching on fire; the attention of the world was in Brazil for a couple of weeks. But 2019 was not the first year of the rainforest burning up, it has happened before, and it occurs in every biome in Brazil.

Australia, the United States and Brazil have all raised the alarms when immense fires were reported. Australia and California have fire seasons due to droughts, and last year the fires got out of control claiming the lives of animals and humans alike. But in Brazil, droughts are not what cause the smoky sky and flames.

Brazil has 64% of the Amazon rainforest on its territory, and as a result of their exploitation of this resource, deforestation is a major problem. Amazônia Legal or Brazilian Legal Amazon -BLA- is the socio-geographic division designated by the government where industrial activity can take place to develop the region.

BLA includes nine states where activities like deforestation take place “under control” and do not affect the virgin forest areas. Deforestation takes place all over Brazil throughout its different biomes. “Every year at the beginning of the year, there are fires in Roraima -a northern state- from January to April," explained Fabiano Morelli, INPE Fire Monitoring Program "Usually deforestation fires take place and then they move to another part of the country,” .

Did the forest burn?

International organizations, as well as different nations, called for action when videos reporting the fires went viral. There was a general worry about the wildlife that could have been endangered because of the flames. But there was not any danger at all.

“The high flames consuming the trees and reaching to the top, that are possible to see on the California fires were not the same ones in the Amazon,” explains Morelli “in August what called the attention was the area burning, from Mato Grosso to Bahia.” That area is in the middle of the country and is a transition zone. Mato Grosso belongs to BLA and Bahia is on the coast, so the land changes from rainforest to highlands and beaches.

The fires were a result of cleaning up after deforestation. “The intense fire was provoked because there was old and new wood, this means what was leftover to clean up from 2018, and 2019 was burning at the same time,” said Morelli.

This happened because it takes up to four years to have the entire area cleaned of what is not used for industrial or commercial purposes. It happens with smaller fires over more extended periods to avoid being regulated and to avoid unwanted attention from environmentalists and negative public opinion.

Sometimes wildfires help regenerate life, after a few years it resurfaces, and a new cycle begins, but this will not be the case for Brazil. “No, the forest there won’t regenerate or resurface, because it wasn’t the fire that killed the trees, it was deforestation,” stated Morelli.

Morelli acknowledges the help from the response teams, including the military, that was sent to the area. “The fire didn´t evolve because they made sure it wouldn´t jump to other areas, but it kept burning.” It was necessary to send help because it was important to protect public preserved areas, reserved indigenous areas, and even military bases. But the rainforest is still burning; 2020 data shows there are more fires and the situation is getting worse.

The challenge is how to control fires due to economic activities. Other biomes like The Pampa have burnt more than usual, which means Brazil faces the problem of how much environmental damage is being done done in every territory.

Researchers at INPE don´t have enough information to advise on where and for how long the environment will sustain the situation. “We can´t determine how many private properties underwent deforestation(what do you mean?), how many burnt and the percentage left,” said Morelli.

The lack of control is because there is a a lack of restriction or strategy about where it is possible to cut down trees. There are private landowners who profit from entirely unregulated deforestation.

“There is a legal problem. Imagine someone buys two farms, 100% of one burnt and 100% of the other one preserved. That means that owner is on the safe side of the law and making a profit. Now, how many farms operate that way, claiming preservation by using other lands,” described Morelli.

The flexibility of the law that protects economic activities over the environment is putting half of the world´s lungs at risk in Latin-America. At the same time, it will harm the general ecosystem of the country while its´ president, Jair Bolsonaro, said at the Leticia Pact that reported the growing flames are “lies”.