Fires in Yanomami territory drop 62% in the first two months of 2023

The area burned in Yanomami indigenous territory fell by 62% in January and February of this year, compared to the first two months of last year. The data are from Monitor do Fogo, an initiative of MapBiomas and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).

The director of Science at IPAM and coordinator of MapBiomas Fogo, Ane Alencar, said that normally the first months of the year are very rainy in Brazil, but in Roraima the rain usually arrives later. Even with the drop, the state remains the one that most recorded fires in the Amazon during this period.

“There was a reduction that was even greater in the Yanomami indigenous land. It is possible to evaluate this change as a consequence of the reappearance of the State in the region and of a governance that was reopened for the fulfillment of the law”, said Alencar, referring to operations against illegal mining and the efforts of the federal government to combat the humanitarian crisis. among the Yanomami at the beginning of the year.

Fire Monitor data show that the Amazon was the most burned biome in Brazil in the first two months of the year. Roraima, Mato Grosso and Pará were the states with the largest area affected, respectively.

Even so, the state of Roraima had a 44% drop in fires compared to last year. There were 470 thousand hectares burned between January and February 2022, and 259 thousand hectares burned in 2023.

In total, the area burned in the Amazon biome in the first two months of 2023 is equivalent to four times the city of Belém, capital of Pará, and represents 90% of everything that burned in the country. Brazil had 536,000 hectares burned in these two months, a 28% drop compared to the same period in 2022.

*Posted by Fernanda Pinotti