A fire in the state of Para, Brazil, in August 2020. -

Andre Penner / AP / SIPA

The situation is not getting better in Brazil.

The Amazon recorded more than double the number of fires in October compared to those recorded in the same month last year.

The forest suffered 17,326 fires against 7,855 in October 2019 according to the National Institute of Space Investigations (INPE).

Over the first ten months of the year, 93,356 outbreaks were recorded against 89,176 over the whole of last year.

The Pantanal, he had his record of fires.

This biodiversity sanctuary and the largest wetland on the planet has suffered 2,856 fires, its monthly record since observations began in 1998. In 2020, flames devoured more than 23% of the Brazilian part of this area, which s' also extends to the side of Paraguay and Bolivia.

Over the first ten months of the year, 21,115 fires were recorded, more than double than last year (10,025).

"Deforestation and fires go hand in hand"

Environmental experts and NGOs blame the government of the Brazilian president, a notorious climate skeptic, for these fires.

Jair Bolsonaro notably gives a speech in favor of extraction activities in protected areas which, according to conservationists, encourage deforestation.

"With the increase in deforestation rates in recent years, researchers' warnings have been ignored by the government: deforestation and fires go hand in hand," said Mariana Napolitano, scientific director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Brazil.

“After clearing the jungle, the delinquents set fire to clean the accumulated organic matter (…).

At the end of the month (October), with the onset of the rains, the rate of fires seems to slow down, but we cannot depend only on climatic factors.

What happened during the dry season in the Amazon and in the Pantanal cannot be repeated ”, she added.

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  • Environment

  • Deforestation

  • Amazonia

  • Fire

  • Brazil

  • Planet