The Brazilian Amazon is Still Ravaged by Fires

Fire outbreaks cause concern as they occur even as Amazon deforestation continues to decline.

In the first half of 2024, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded 13,489 fire outbreaks in the Brazilian Amazon.

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That figure is the highest one since 2004 and represents a 61 percent increase in the number of fires compared to the first half of 2023, when the INPE recorded 8,344 fires.

The government of President Lula da Silva expressed concern about the data given that the increase in fires occurs even though Amazon deforestation continues to decline.

Between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2024, deforestation decreased by 42 percent, going from a loss of natural vegetation of 2,649 km² to 1,525 km².

The text reads, “According to satellite data released on Monday, Brazil registered 13,489 fire outbreaks in the Amazon in the first half of the year, the worst figure in two decades and an increase of 61 percent compared to last year.

So far this year, forest fires have also reached alarming levels in the Pantanal and Cerrado, areas near the south of the Amazon, the newspaper Gazeta Brasil reported.

“In the Pantanal, the largest humid area in the world, 3,538 fires have been recorded since the beginning of the year… The situation is equally worrying in the Cerrado, which recorded 13,229 fires,” it added.

“Deforestation within the floodplain is occurring primarily to intensify livestock production, which is driven by international demand for cheap commodities, including demand generated by the European Union (EU),” environmental organizations such as Pantanal SOS, Ara Azul Institute, and Chalana Esperança explained in a letter addressed to the European Parliament.