“The fire won’t stop now. It’s a large expanse and no one is acting to put it out.” This is the assessment of the president of Caarim (Central of Agroextractive Associations of Rio Manicoré), Maria Cléia Delgado, 53.
She says she has never seen a fire of this proportion in Manicoré, in the south of the Amazon. The location is in the ranking of the ten Brazilian municipalities with the highest number of fire outbreaks accumulated this month, between August 1st and 23rd.
According to data from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), the last Monday (22) recorded the highest number of fires in the Amazon for the month of August since 2017.
In Manicoré, a fire has been raging through the forest for almost ten days. In the last week, the smoke even left the sky over Manaus (about 332 kilometers away) gray in the middle of the Amazonian summer day, worsening the feeling of heat.
In the capital, the image of closed skies, but no rain began in June this year. However, since last weekend, it has gotten worse.
The same gray aspect has taken over Porto Velho, in Rondônia, in recent days.
The large fire in Manicoré was detected by a Greenpeace team that flew over the site on August 18 and identified an area of 1,800 hectares (the equivalent of 11 Ibirapuera parks) being destroyed by fire in the region demarcated by the CDRU (Concession of Rights Real de Uso), from the Government of Amazonas to residents of the Manicoré River communities.
The devastation comes two months after the governor of Amazonas and candidate for reelection, Wilson Lima (União Brasil), an ally of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), declared that he would go “to the last consequences” and that he would “fight against” to prevent the creation of RDS (Sustainable Development Reserve) in the Manicoré River region when visiting the city on campaign. The RDS is claimed by traditional communities in the region.
“The city (Manicoré) was all full of smoke. It was very stuffy. People get more coughing, shortness of breath, eye pain, all from the smoke”, said Maria Cléia.
The president of Caarim says that, during this period, people from outside the Amazon arrived in Manicoré and residents suspect that they participated in the arson. “They say they want to build an airstrip and open a farm. They are taking over the lands on the Manicoré River. They stay there, drinking around the city. We don’t even leave the house,” said Maria Cléia.
According to the prosecutor and coordinator for the Environment of the MPC-AM (Ministry of Accounts of the State of Amazonas), Ruy Marcelo Alencar, the smoke that has become denser in recent days and covers Manaus comes from the south of Amazonas and from burned not only in Manicoré, but also in Lábrea and Apuí.
Between August 19 and 23, the fires recorded in ten other municipalities in the Amazon exceeded Manicoré, including Humaitá, Boca do Acre, Lábrea and Boca do Acre, also in southern Amazonas. Also included in this list are Novo Progresso, São Félix do Xingu and Altamira, in Pará; Feijó and Tarauacá, in Acre; Porto Velho and Candeias do Jamari, in Rondônia.
Ruy Marcelo says that all these municipalities are in the context of advancing devastation in the Amazon and the arc of deforestation that is advancing towards more preserved areas and, therefore, require urgent action from the State.
According to the prosecutor, the problem in Manicoré was detected by complaints that reached the MPC, satellites from Inpe’s systems and also in technologies that monitor the direction of the winds.
“This monitoring technology shows us that all this smoke and winds that reach the metropolitan region of Manaus come from illegal fires caused in the south of the Amazon. This process reflects a process of illegal deforestation, which previously occurs with logging, predominantly illegal” , declared.
The prosecutor asked five secretariats of the Government of Amazonas to take urgent measures to control fires in the area of the Real Right of Use Concession in Manicoré to preserve the integrity of families and the environment, as well as prevent the subsequent illness of the people affected. by the smoke effect in Manaus.
According to the prosecutor, a more in-depth study is needed to assess the effects of smoke on the health of the population in Manaus, but smoke increases the risk of respiratory diseases.
Ruy Marcelo states that the fact that the fire occurred in a place that is not a conservation unit does not exclude the need for government command and control to ensure the safety of the population and repress illegalities that degrade the forest.
“This is a property belonging to the State, occupied by traditional communities that need to have their rights guaranteed by the State due to this conflict over the use of the forest. However, these third parties invade and want to impose an incompatible and irregular logging regime. the State has to enforce its command and control, guarantee law and order in that region and, above all, ensure the safety of those populations”, declared the prosecutor.
The Government of Amazonas said that it has reinforced the contingent of environmental and public security technicians in the region of Apuí, Humaitá, Lábrea and Manicoré to fight the fires. According to management, there was also reinforcement in the structuring of local brigades.
The report requested information on monitoring fires, but questions were not answered. The government also declined to comment on Governor Wilson Lima’s statements against a conservation unit in the area that became the focus of fires.
Also according to the Government of Amazonas, there was no increase in records of care for respiratory diseases in health units in the state in recent days. Sought, the Municipal Health Department of Manaus did not comment on the records of care.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
