Fires in the Pantanal wetlands

Not only Amazonia is burning: The Pantanal wetlands are currently experiencing the worst crisis in decades. A severe drought and man-made fires are currently threatening one of the largest inland wetlands on earth. The Pantanal, a species-rich protected wetland biotope, has been a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site since the year 2000. "The region is a home to the few remaining indigenous Guató people, among others," stated Juliana Miyazaki, expert on indigenous peoples at the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). "About 80 families of this community are threatened by the fires on the indigenous land Baía dos Guató – and the 35 families of the Bororo people in the indigenous territory of Perigara have lost 8,100 hectares of land in the fires, more than 75% of their land". The indigenous territory of Tereza Cristina has lost 12 percent of its 3,300 hectares.

"The affected people have lost houses, food, and stocks of natural medicine, which are their livelihoods," explained Miyazaki. "Now the Guatós, in particular, fear that the fish could die from river pollution if the fires continue during the flood season. Then, they would lose an important source of food. The affected area will continue to grow until the end of the dry season – as shown by the Burn Monitor of the Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV), which monitors the number of fires in Mato Grosso. The ICV analyses the Global Fire Emissions Database of NASA and the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe). "The database shows 148 fire sources in indigenous areas in the Pantanal from January to August of this year, 81 percent of which were observed in August. At that time, strong winds had caused the fires to spread," Miyazaki explained.

The figures show a significant increase in fires in indigenous areas in this biome. In 2019, there were five fires in the same period – and none in 2018. According to the Brazilian National Center for the Prevention and Fight against Forest Fires, the Pantanal has already lost about 15 percent of its area in fires: more than 2.3 million hectares – an area about ten times as big as the Saarland. Between January and September 10, 2020, there were 12,703 individual fires in the Pantanal. This is the highest number for this period since the Inpe began monitoring in 1998.