According to experts, the fires are mainly started by farmers who illegally clear land by burning trees
Brazil’s Amazon experienced its worst August since 2010, with an 18 percent increase in forest fires compared to the same month last year, according to official figures released Thursday.
Satellites of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) detected 33,116 fires in the Amazon last month, compared to 28,060 in August 2021.
August is usually the most critical for forest fires, in the heart of the dry season.
On August 22 alone, no fewer than 3,348 outbreaks were detected; this is the highest daily number since September 2007.
This is three times the number of August 10, 2019, the so-called “day of the fire”, when Brazilian farmers engaged in widespread burning to clear fields in the north-east of the country. The smoke had reached as far as São Paulo (south), 2,500 kilometers away. The international community had strongly condemned the events of that day.
In the first eight months of the year, INPE detected a total of 46,022 fire outbreaks. Their number is increased by 16% compared to the January-August period of 2021.
As far as this month is concerned, so many fire outbreaks had been detected in twelve years (in 2010, 45,018 were detected).
From 2010 to date, the four worst numbers for that month correspond to the four years of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s term (30,900 in 2019, 29,307 in 2020, 28,060 in 2021 and 33,116 in 2022). Mr Bolsonaro will seek a new term in office in October.
“The rampant increase in the number of fires in these last four years is closely linked to the increase in deforestation,” explains Mariana Napolitano of the Brazilian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
“The Amazon forest is tropical and humid. Fire is not part of its natural cycle. Fires are not natural, they are always caused by human actions,” he continues.
According to experts, the fires are mainly started by farmers who illegally clear land by burning trees.
Deforestation of the Amazon forest has also peaked in Brazil, with 3,988 square kilometers cleared in the first six months alone, a record area since INPE’s Deter satellite monitoring system began collecting data in 2016.
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