Recent days of intense fire in the Amazon could have been even worse. An operation in Mato Grosso prevented a new “fire day”, which was being engineered by landowners in Colniza, one of the cities with the highest number of fires in the country.
Large-scale coordinated fires would be planned for the period from August 4th to 6th, according to information gathered by the Sheet. In order to avoid possible police actions, the farmers spread the information throughout the region that the new “fire day” would take place on the 10th of this month.
Coincidentally, the same day 10, but of 2019, was marked by the first “day of fire”, when rural producers combined, for the same period, burning of pasture and areas in the process of deforestation. The days that followed were marked by high numbers of fires, according to data from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research).
Operation Jomeri managed to stop a part of the planned fires, however, in some points, the fire was carried out.
The secret investigation is a joint action by Gaeco Ambiental (Special Action Group A Against Organized Crime), Colniza Prosecutor’s Office, Dema (Specialized Environment Police Department), JuÃna Regional Police Station, Colniza Police Department, GOE (Group of Special Operations), Environmental Protection Battalion of the Military Police and Sema (Secretary of State for the Environment), from Mato Grosso.
The police seized firearms (the person carrying them was arrested, but the number of detainees was not disclosed), material intended for burning, including thermal protection gloves, and cell phones and computers. Since the beginning of the operation, 18 infraction notices for illegal deforestation have already been issued.
The investigations, which began last year, identified that an important part of the fires occurred in the region of the Bauru farm (Magali), in Colniza, an area of ​​land dispute, marked by occupations, conflicts and judicial confrontation. The idea was that the simultaneous fires would make it difficult to identify the perpetrators of the crime.
The use of fire in Mato Grosso is prohibited from July 1st to October 30th, as it is a dry period in which there is greater risk of wildfires.
The homeowners who engineered the new “fire day” also planned to use oranges to steer clear of crime. Drawer contracts were made simulating the transfer of pieces of land. The fictitious owners were the same people hired to do the fires that would clear the area. That way, if there was a problem with the courts, the owners wouldn’t actually show up. Simulated contracts were also seized in the Jomeri operation.
According to information from the Public Ministry of Mato Grosso, the investigated properties total an area of ​​more than 300 thousand hectares, equivalent to more than 1,800 Ibirapuera parks (postcard of the city of São Paulo). About 50,000 hectares — which is equivalent to about 315 parks — have already been cleared on these farms.
The Prosecutor’s Office has already filed requests for socio-environmental reparations in the amount of R$ 421 million for the deforestation carried out.
Those investigated can be charged with criminal association, illegal deforestation and burning.
thousands of foci
Despite the action that managed to prevent a coordinated fire, the city of Colniza still has significant numbers of fires. Only in this month of August, until this Friday (26), there were 1,164 hotspots detected by Inpe sensors. The Amazon city concentrates 4% of the 26,553 fires registered in the Amazon.
At the beginning of the month, Colniza had lower numbers of hotspots, which became more expressive especially after August 11, reaching a peak (so far) of 184 fires in the municipality on the 22nd.
It was also on the 22nd that the significant fires in several other cities produced the largest number of fire outbreaks for a single day in August since 2002. There were 3,358 burning records, according to Inpe.
The leading city of fires that day was Apuà (AM), with 357 outbreaks. Colniza appears in the sixth position of the ranking.
The months of August and September are usually the most critical months for fires in the country and in the Amazon. The averages of hot spots for these months surpass tens of thousands of hotspots.
It is worth mentioning that fires are associated with deforestation. In general, landowners clear the forest, allow the deforested area to dry, and then set fire to the destroyed organic material to “cleanse” the property.
Thus, it is common for cities with large deforested areas to also have high records of fires.
Colniza, for example, one of the municipalities with many fires in the country, recorded from August 2020 to July 2021 (this is the last most accurate data available) about 267 km² of deforestation, which earned it 8th place in the ranking of deforestation among Amazonian cities. The area cleared is equivalent to about 168 Ibirapuera parks.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
