The area burned in Brazil between January and August this year corresponds to 11 million hectares . The data was released this week by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam) and other organizations that make up the MapBiomas Network.
The document concluded that fires between January and August 2024 were 116% greater than those recorded last year.
The most affected areas were large rural properties, corresponding to 2.8 million hectares. However, the biggest increase occurred in the so-called non-designated public forests, where a 176% increase in the area affected by fire was identified, with around 870 thousand hectares burned this year alone.
Indigenous lands also had a significant increase: 3 million hectares were burned, which represents an increase of 80% compared to 2023. Conservation units, in turn, registered an increase of 116% and exceeded 1.1 million hectares. hectares burned.
Protection Policies
According to the researchers, the data demonstrates growing pressure on public lands and reinforces the need for territorial management and protection policies.
“They [as políticas] are fundamental for environmental conservation, for respect for the ways of life of indigenous peoples, traditional peoples and communities and their ancestral right to land, and for the maintenance of ecosystem services essential to all forms of life on the planet”, explained the researchers in the note.
For Ane Alencar, director of Science at Ipam and one of the authors of the study, a detailed and regionalized analysis of each fire situation is necessary so that it is possible to understand fire patterns and implement specific control actions.
The director points out that the Amazon and Cerrado, places that concentrate most of the burned area in Brazil, suffer from pasture management and the opening of new production areas, which generally occupy areas of native vegetation.
Amazon
In the Amazon, the biome that burned the most in the first eight months of 2024, a total of 5 million hectares burned were recorded, a number that represents 87% more than last year.
“In the Amazon, deforestation and agricultural expansion drive a cycle of fires. In the Cerrado and Pantanal, the use of fire is often linked to the management of pastures, including natural ones, while the Caatinga and Atlantic Forest suffer from fires of accidental origin or resulting from small-scale agricultural practices”, concluded Ane.
“The distribution of fire in the Amazon indicates strong pressure on formally protected public areas, as well as those still in the process of allocation and areas without cadastral information”, highlight the researchers involved in the study.
Burned areas in the biome:
- Non-designated public forests: largest increase recorded in the Amazon (175%), reaching 834 thousand hectares burned.
- Biome conservation units: at the site, which covers an area of 102 million hectares of native vegetation, the increase in fires was 113%, reaching around 603 thousand hectares.
- Rural properties: The greatest increase was recorded in small properties (99%), followed by medium (85%) and large (68%).
- Federal and state rural settlements: 749 thousand hectares were burned in the first eight months of 2024, a number 144% higher than the same period last year.
The research highlights how proposals for controlling fires in all biomes include implementing more rigorous measures to end the use of fire on rural properties, reinforcing operations to combat the illegal use of fire, in addition to expanding awareness programs for rural landowners. and rural communities regarding the risks of fires.
In the Amazon, the study highlights the importance of appropriate allocation of areas, through the creation of parks, indigenous lands and other types of protected areas that are essential for protecting territories against land grabbing and invasions, in addition to consolidating mechanisms legal and sustainable use.
THE CNN contacted the Ministry of the Environment, but has not yet received a response.
*Under supervision
This content was originally published in Brazil had 11 million hectares burned between January and August 2024 on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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