After a dry month of August, fires continue to sweep through the Amazon rainforest.
Satellite images from earlier this week show, according to the Brazilian newspaper Folah de S. Paulo, that over 20,000 forest fires have so far occurred in the Amazon in September.
This can be compared with the same period last year, when the total number amounted to just under 20,000 for the whole of September.
According to Olle Forssmed, an expert on rainforest and tropical forestry, the situation is alarming and threatens biodiversity.
- It has never been as serious as it is now.
The amounts we see burning now are as much as last year.
And it is incredibly worrying what we see now in September when we see a doubling compared to last year, he says in Morgonstudion.
Free up land
The causes of the fires are believed to be partly related to the drought, but farmers who want to free up land are also a major problem.
- There are some of the fires that occur for more natural reasons, that it is a dry period in Brazil during this part of the year.
But that is not enough as an explanation.
There are also many who deliberately set fire to natural areas to free up land primarily for animal husbandry.
So it is linked to meat production, but also agriculture and soy farming, says SVT's Latin American correspondent Tigran Feiler in Morgonstudion.
Wetlands also affected
The difference now from previous years is, according to Tigran Feiler, that wetlands are also affected to an increasing extent.
- Pantanal is the world's largest wetland, which is an important and sensitive ecosystem.
And there are three times more fires in there than last year.
So we see a continued development of what has been going on for the past two years, he says.
Brazil is hit annually by fires in the Amazon and efforts have been made under pressure from both public figures and foreign governments, but to no avail.