2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires
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The 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires season saw a year-to-year surge in fires occurring in the
Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...
and
Amazon biome The Amazon biome ( pt, Bioma Amazônia) contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater and white ...
within
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
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,
Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...
, and
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
during that year's Amazonian tropical
dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The ...
. Fires normally occur around the dry season as
slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
methods are used to clear the forest to make way for agriculture, livestock, logging, and mining, leading to
deforestation of the Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering an area of 3,000,000 km2 (2,316,612.95 square miles). It represents over half of the planet's rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropic ...
. Such activity is generally illegal within these nations, but enforcement of environmental protection can be lax. The increased rates of fire counts in 2019 led to international concern about the fate of the Amazon rainforest, which is the world's largest terrestrial
carbon dioxide sink A carbon sink is anything, natural or otherwise, that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period and thereby removes carbon dioxide () from the atmosphere. Globally, the two most important carbon ...
and plays a significant role in mitigating global warming. The increasing rates were first reported by Brazil's
National Institute for Space Research The National Institute for Space Research ( pt, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE) is a research unit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations, the main goals of which are fostering scientific research an ...
(''Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais'', INPE) in June and July 2019 through satellite monitoring systems, but international attention was drawn to the situation by August 2019 when
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
corroborated INPE's findings, and smoke from the fires, visible from satellite imagery, darkened the city of
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...
despite being thousands of kilometers from the Amazon. , INPE reported more than 80,000 fires across all of Brazil, a 77% year-to-year increase for the same tracking period, with more than 40,000 in the Brazil's Legal Amazon (''Amazônia Legal'' or BLA), which contains 60% of the Amazon. Similar year-to-year increases in fires were subsequently reported in Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru, with the 2019 fire counts within each nation of over 19,000, 11,000 and 6,700, respectively, . It is estimated that over of forest within the Amazon biome has been lost to fires in 2019. In addition to the impact on global climate, the fires created environmental concerns from the excess
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...
(CO2) and
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simpl ...
(CO) within the fires' emissions, potential impacts on the
biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...
of the Amazon, and threats to indigenous tribes that live within the forest. Ecologists estimated that the
dieback Dieback may refer to a number of plant problems and diseases including: * Forest dieback caused by acid rain, heavy metal pollution, or imported pathogens * The death of regions of a plant or similar organism caused by physical damage, such as from ...
from the Amazon rainforest due to the fires could cost Brazil US$957 billion to US$3.5 trillion over a 30-year period. The increased rate of fires in Brazil has raised the most concerns as international leaders, particularly French president
Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
, and environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) attributed these to Brazilian president
Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
's pro-business policies that had weakened environmental protections and have encouraged deforestation of the Amazon after he took office in January 2019. Bolsonaro initially remained ambivalent and rejected international calls to take action, asserting that the criticism was sensationalist. Following increased pressure at the
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and a threat to reject the pending
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, Bolsonaro dispatched over 44,000 Brazilian troops and allocated funds to fight the fires, and later signed a decree to prevent such fires for a sixty-day period. Other Amazonian countries have been affected by the wildfires in higher or lesser degree. The number of hectares of Bolivian rainforest affected by the wildfires were roughly equal to those of Brazil, being the area of Bolivia only about one-eighth of Brazil's. Bolivian president
Evo Morales Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to c ...
was similarly blamed for past policies that encouraged deforestation, Morales has also taken proactive measures to fight the fires and seek aid from other countries. At the G7 summit, Macron negotiated with the other nations to allocate for emergency aid to the Amazonian countries affected by the fires.


Amazon forest and deforestation

There are of Amazon rainforest. Human-driven
deforestation of the Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering an area of 3,000,000 km2 (2,316,612.95 square miles). It represents over half of the planet's rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropic ...
has been a major concern for decades as the rainforest's impact on the global climate has been measured. From a global climate perspective, the Amazon has been the world's largest
carbon dioxide sink A carbon sink is anything, natural or otherwise, that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period and thereby removes carbon dioxide () from the atmosphere. Globally, the two most important carbon ...
, and estimated to capture up to 25% of global
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...
generation into plants and other
biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bio ...
. Without this sink, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations would increase and contribute towards higher global temperatures, thus making the viability of the Amazon a global concern. Further, when the forest is lost through fire, additional carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere, and could potentially contribute significantly to the total carbon dioxide content. The flora also generates significant quantities of water vapor through
transpiration Transpiration is the process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from aerial parts, such as leaves, stems and flowers. Water is necessary for plants but only a small amount of water taken up by the roots is used for growth ...
which travel large distances to other parts of South America via atmospheric rivers and contribute to the precipitation in these areas. Due to ongoing global climate change, environmental scientists have raised concerns that the Amazon could reach a "tipping point" where it would irreversibly die out, the land becoming more
savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground ...
than forest, under certain climate change conditions which are exacerbated by
anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human i ...
activities. Human-driven deforestation of the Amazon is used to clear land for agriculture, livestock, and mining, and for its lumber. Most forest is typically cleared using
slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
processes; huge amounts of biomass are removed by first pulling down the trees in the Amazon using bulldozers and giant tractors during the wet season (November through June), followed by torching the tree trunks several months later in the dry season (July through October). Fires are most common in July through August. In some cases, workers performing the burn are unskilled, and may inadvertently allow these fires to spread. While most countries in the Amazon do have laws and environmental enforcement against deforestation, these are not well enforced, and much of the slash-and-burn activity is done illegally. Deforestation leads to a large number of observed fires across the Amazon during the dry season, usually tracked by satellite data. While it is possible for naturally-occurring wildfires to occur in the Amazon, the chances are far less likely to occur, compared to those in California or in Australia. Even with
global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, spontaneous fires in the Amazon cannot come from warm weather alone, but warm weather is capable of exacerbating the fires once started as there will be drier biomass available for the fire to spread. Alberto Setzer of INPE estimated that 99% of the wildfires in the Amazon basin are a result of human actions, either on purpose or accidentally. Man-made fires in the Amazon also tend to elevate their smoke into the higher atmosphere due to the more intense burn of the dry biomass, compared with naturally occurring wildfires. Further evidence of the fires being caused by human activity is due to their clustering near roads and existing agricultural areas rather than remote parts of the forest. On November 18, 2019, Brazilian authorities announced the official deforestation figures, based on the PRODES satellite monitoring system for the 2019 forest year—from August 1, 2018, to July 31, 2019. The rate of deforestation was the "worst in more than a decade" with lost. In August 2020 Brazil's
National Institute for Space Research The National Institute for Space Research ( pt, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE) is a research unit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations, the main goals of which are fostering scientific research an ...
reported that satellite data shows that the number of fires in the Amazon increased by 28% to ~6,800 fires in July compared to the ~5,300 wildfires in July 2019. This indicated a, potentially worsened, repeat of 2019's accelerated destruction of one of the world's largest protectable buffers against global warming in 2020.


Broad types of fire in the Amazon

Amazon fires can be separated into three broad categories. First, deforestation-related fires are those used to prepare the area for agriculture after a primary forest being felled and the vegetation left to dry. Second, there are those agricultural burns, when fires are used to clear existing pastureland and/or by smallholders and traditional people in rotational agriculture. Finally, the previous fire types can escape beyond intended limits and invade standing forests. When a forest burns for the first time, fire intensity is usually low and flames are mostly restricted to the understory while repeated fire events have higher intensity. Forest fires are a threat to the Amazonian biodiversity and jeopardize the ability of forest trees to mitigate climate change by storing carbon. When studying Amazonian fires, it is important to consider the marked spatial differences in precipitation patterns across the Amazon Basin, which does not have a single dry season.


Fires in Brazil


Past deforestation and fires in Brazil

Brazil's role in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has been a significant issue during the 1930s, as 60% of the Amazon is contained within Brazil, designated as the Brazil's Legal Amazon (''Amazônia Legal'', BLA). Since the 1970s, Brazil has consumed approximately 12 percent of the forest, representing roughly —an area larger than that of the US state of
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. Most of the deforestation has been for natural resources for the logging industry and land clearing for agricultural and mining use. Forest removal to make way for
cattle ranching A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...
was the leading cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from the mid-1960s on. The Amazon region has become the largest cattle ranching territory in the world. According to the
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, some 80% of deforested land is used for cattle ranching. Seventy percent of formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, is used for livestock
pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...
. According to the
Center for International Forestry Research The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a non-profit scientific research organization that conducts research on the use and management of forests with a focus on tropical forests in developing countries. CIFOR, which merged wi ...
(CIFOR), "between 1990 and 2001 the percentage of Europe's processed meat imports that came from Brazil rose from 40 to 74 percent" and by 2003 "for the first time ever, the growth in Brazilian cattle production, 80 percent of which was in the Amazon was largely export driven." The Brazilian states of Pará, Mato Grosso, and Rondônia, located along the southern border of the Amazon rainforest, are in what is called the "deforestation arc". Deforestation within Brazil is partially driven by growing demand for beef and soy exports, particularly to China and Hong Kong. In the first seven months of 2019, soy exports to China rose by 18% due to trading tensions between the United States and China. Brazil is one of the largest exporters of beef, accounting for more than 20% of global trade of the commodity. Brazil exported over 1.6 million tonnes of beef in 2018, the highest volume in recorded history. Brazil's cattle herd has increased by 56% over the last two decades. Ranchers wait until the dry season to slash-and-burn to give time for the cattle to graze. Soybean production has increased from 75.32 million metric tons in 2010/11 to 118.8 million metric tons in 2018/19. The Amazon accounts for 14 million of the 284 million acres of soy plantations in Brazil. While slash-and-burn can be controlled, unskilled farmers may end up causing wildfires. Wildfires have increased as the agricultural sector has pushed into the Amazon basin and spurred deforestation. In recent years, "land-grabbers" (''grileiros'') have been illegally cutting deep into the forest in "Brazil's indigenous territories and other protected forests throughout the Amazon". Past data from INPE has shown the number of fires with the BLA from January to August in any year to be routinely higher than 60,000 fires from 2002 to 2007 and as high as 90,000 in 2003. Fire counts have generally been higher in years of drought (2007 and 2010), which are often coupled with
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events. Within international attention on the protection of the Amazon around the early 2000s, Brazil took a more proactive approach to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. In 2004, the Brazilian government had established the Federal Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAM), with the goal to reduce the rate of deforestation through land use regulation,
environmental monitoring Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well a ...
, and sustainable activities, promoted through partnerships at the federal and private level, and legal penalties for violations. Brazil also invested in more effective measures to fight fires, including fire-fighting airplanes in 2012. By 2014,
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was teaching the indigenous people how to fight fires. As a result of enforcement of PPCDAM, the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped 83.5% of their 2004 rates by 2012. However, in 2014, Brazil fell into an
economic crisis An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...
, and as part of that recovery, pushed heavily on its exports of beef and soy to help bolster its economy, which caused a reversal in the falling deforestation rates. The Brazilian government has been defunding scientific research since the economic crisis. To support PPCDAM, the INPE began developing systems to monitor the Amazon rainforest. One early effort was the Amazon Deforestation Satellite Monitoring Project (PRODES), which is a highly detailed satellite imagery-based approach to calculate wildfires and deforestation losses on an annual basis. In 2015, INPE launched five complementary projects as part of the Terra Brasilis project to monitor deforestation closer to real-time. Among these include the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (DETER) satellite alert system, allowing them to capture incidents of wildfires in 15-day cycles. The daily data is published on the regularly updated Brazilian Environmental Institute government website, and later corroborated with the annual and more accurate PRODES data. By December 2017, INPE had completed a modernization process and had expanded its system to analyze and share data on forest fires. It launched its new TerraMA2Q platform—software which adapts fire-monitoring data software including the "occurrence of irregular fires". Although the INPE was able to provide regional fire data since 1998, the modernization increased access. Agencies that monitor and fight fires include the Brazilian Federal Environment and Renewable Resources Agency (IBAMA), as well as state authorities. The INPE receives its images daily from 10 foreign satellites, including the Terra and Aqua satellites—part of the NASA's Earth Observation System (EOS). Combined, these systems are able to capture the number of fires on a daily basis, but this number does not directly measure the area of forest lost to these fires; instead, this is done with fortnightly imaging data to compare the current state of the forest with reference data to estimate acreage lost. Jair Bolsonaro was elected as
President of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...
in October 2018 and took office in January 2019, after which he and his ministries changed governmental policies to weaken protection of the rainforest and make it favorable for farmers to continue practices of slash-and-burn clearing, thus accelerating the deforestation from previous years. Land-grabbers had used Bolsonaro's election to extend their activities into cutting in the land of the previously isolated Apurinã people in Amazonas where the "world's largest standing tracts of unbroken rainforest" are found. Upon entering office, Bolsonaro cut from Brazil's environmental enforcement agency, making it difficult for the agency to regulate deforestation efforts. Bolsonaro and his ministers had also segmented the environmental agency, placing part of its control under the agricultural ministry, which is led by the country's farming lobby, weakened protections on natural reserves and territories belonging to indigenous people, and encouraged businesses to file counter-land claims against regions managed by sustainable forestry practices.


2019 Brazil dry season fires

INPE alerted the Brazilian government to larger-than-normal growth in the number of fires through June to August 2019. The first four months of the year were wetter-than-average, discouraging slash-and-burn efforts. However, with the start of the dry season in May 2019, the number of wildfires jumped greatly. Additionally, NOAA reported that, regionally, the temperatures in the January–July 2019 period were the second warmest year-to-date on record. INPE reported a year-to-year increase of 88% in wildfire occurrences in June 2019. There was further increase in the rate of deforestation in July 2019, with the INPE estimating that more than of land had been deforested in the month and would be on track to surpass the area of
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by the end of the month. The month of August 2019 saw a large growth in the number of observed wildfires according to INPE. By August 11, Amazonas had declared a state of emergency. The state of Acre entered into an environmental alert on August 16. In early August, local farmers in the Amazonian state of Pará placed an ad in the local newspaper calling for a ''queimada'' or "Day of Fire" on August 10, 2019, organizing large scale slash-and-burn operations knowing that there was little chance of interference from the government. Shortly after, there was an increase in the number of wildfires in the region. INPE reported on August 20 that it had detected 39,194 fires in the Amazon rainforest since January. This represented a 77 percent increase in the number of fires from the same time period in 2018. However, the NASA-funded NGO Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) shows 2018 as an unusually low fire year compared to historic data from 2004 to 2005 which are years showing nearly double the number of counted fires. INPE had reported that at least 74,155 fires have been detected in all of Brazil, which represents an 84-percent increase from the same period in 2018. NASA originally reported in mid-August that
MODIS The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in Earth orbit: one on board the Terra ( EOS AM) satellite, launched by NASA in 19 ...
satellites reported average numbers of fires in the region compared with data from the past 15 years; the numbers were above average for the year in the states of Amazonas and Rondônia, but below average for Mato Grosso and Pará. NASA later clarified that the data set they had evaluated previous was through August 16, 2019. By August 26, 2019, NASA included more recent MODIS imagery to confirm that the number of fires were higher than in previous years. By August 29, 80,000 fires had broken out in Brazil which represents a 77% rise on the same period in 2018, according to BBC. INPE reported that in the period from January 1 to August 29, across South America, and not exclusive to the Amazon rainforest, there were 84,957 fires in Brazil, 26,573 in Venezuela, 19,265 in Bolivia, 14,363 in Colombia, 14,969 in Argentina, 10,810 in Paraguay, 6,534 in Peru, 2,935 in Chile, 898 in Guyana, 407 in Uruguay, 328 in Ecuador, 162 in Suriname, and 11 in French Guiana.


First media reports

While INPE's data had been reported in international sources earlier, news of the wildfires were not a major news story until around August 20, 2019. On that day, the smoke plume from the fires in Rondônia and Amazonas caused the sky to darken at around 2 p.m. over
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...
—which is almost away from the Amazon basin on the eastern coast. NASA and US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditi ...
(NOAA) also published satellite imagery from the
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in Earth orbit: one on board the Terra ( EOS AM) satellite, launched by NASA in 19 ...
(MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite in alignment with INPE's own, that showed smoke plumes from the wildfires were visible from space. INPE and NASA data, along with photographs of the ongoing fires and impacts, caught international attention and became a rising topic on social media, with several world leaders, celebrities, and athletes expressing their concerns. According to '' Vox'', of all the concurrent wildfires elsewhere in the world, the wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil were the most "alarming".


Responses of the Brazilian government

In the months prior to August 2019, Bolsonaro mocked international and environmental groups that felt his pro-business actions enabled deforestation. At one point in August 2019, Bolsonaro jokingly calling himself "Captain Chainsaw" while asserting that INPE's data was inaccurate. After INPE announced an 88% increase of wildfires in July 2019, Bolsonaro claimed "the numbers were fake" and fired Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão, the INPE director. Bolsonaro claimed Galvão was using the data to lead an "anti-Brazil campaign". Bolsonaro had claimed that the fires had been deliberately started by environmental NGOs, although he provided no evidence to back up the accusation. NGOs such as WWF Brasil,
Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
, and the Brazilian Institute for Environmental Protection countered Bolsonaro's claims. Bolsonaro, on August 22, argued that Brazil did not have the resources to fight the fires, as the "Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?". Historically, Brazil has been guarded about international intervention into the BLA, as the country sees the forest as a critical part of Brazil's economy. Bolsonaro and his government have continued to speak out against any international oversight of the situation. Bolsonaro considered French President
Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
's comments to have a "sensationalist tone" and accusing him of interfering in what he considers is a local problem. Of Macron and German Chancellor
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, Bolsonaro stated: "They still haven't realized that Brazil is under new direction. That there's now a president who is loyal to heBrazilian people, who says the Amazon is ours, who says bad Brazilians can't release lying numbers and campaign against Brazil." Bolsonaro's foreign minister Ernesto Araújo has also condemned the international criticism of Bolsonaro's reaction to the wildfires, calling it "savage and unfair" treatment towards Bolsonaro and Brazil. Araújo stated that: "President Bolsonaro's government is rebuilding Brazil", and that foreign nations were using the "environmental crisis" as a weapon to stop this rebuilding. General Eduardo Villas Bôas, former commander of the Brazilian Army, considered the criticism of world leaders, like Macron and Canadian Prime Minister
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, to be directly challenging "Brazilian sovereignty", and may need to be met with military response. With increased pressure from the international community, Bolsonaro appeared more willing to take proactive steps against the fires, saying by August 23, 2019, that his government would take a "zero tolerance" approach to environmental crimes. He engaged the Brazilian military to help fight the wildfires on August 24, which Joint Staff member Lt. Brig. Raul Botelho stated was to create a "positive perception" of the government's efforts. Among military support included 43,000 troops as well as four firefighting aircraft, and an allocated for fire-fighting operations. Initial efforts were principally located in the state of
Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso ...
, but the Defense Ministry stated they plan to offer support for all seven states affected by the fires. On August 28, Bolsonaro signed a decree banning the setting of fires in Brazil for a period of 60 days, making exceptions for those fires made purposely to maintain environmental forest health, to combat wildfires, and by the indigenous people of Brazil. However, as most fires are set illegally, it is unclear what impact this decree could have.
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, president of the
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, announced that he would form a parliatary committee to monitor the problem. In addition, he said that the Chamber will hold a general commission in the following days to assess the situation and propose solutions to the government. After a report from Globo Rural reveal that a
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group of 70 people was involved with the ''Day of Fire'',
Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
determined the opening of investigations by
Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...
. In a webcast issued November 28, 2019, President Jair Bolsonaro blamed actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio for the rainforest wildfires, alleging NGOs set the fires in return for donations. DiCaprio, Global Wildlife Conservation, and IUCN Species Survival Commission condemn Bolsonaro's accusations.Leonardo DiCaprio responds after Brazil's President blames actor for Amazon forest fires
Leah Asmelash, CNN World, Dec 1, 2019
Brazil banned clearing land by setting fire to it on 29 August 2019. More measures taken by the Brazilian government of
Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
to stop the fires include: * Accepting 4 planes from Chile to battle the fires. * Accepting 12 million dollars of aid from the United Kingdom government * Softening his position about aid from the G7. * Appealing for an international conference to preserve the Amazon with participation of all countries that have some part of the Amazon rainforest in their territory


Protests against Brazilian government policies

In regards to the displacement of the indigenous people,
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
has highlighted the change in protection of lands belonging to the indigenous people, and have called on other nations to pressure Brazil to restore these rights, as they are also essential to protecting the rainforest. Ivaneide Bandeira Cardoso, founder of Kanindé, a
Porto Velho Porto Velho (, ''Old Port'') is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin, and a Catholic Metropolitan Archbishopric. The population is 548,952 people (as of the IBGE 2021 estimation). Located on the border of ...
-based advocacy group for indigenous communities, said Bolsonaro is directly responsible for the escalation of forest fires throughout the Amazon this year. Cardoso said the wildfires are a "tragedy that affects all of humanity" since the Amazon plays an important role in the global ecosystem as a carbon sink to reduce the effects of climate change. Thousands of Brazilian citizens held protests in several major cities from August 24, 2019, onward to challenge the government's reaction to the wildfires. Protesters around the world also held events at Brazilian embassies, including in London, Paris, Mexico City, and Geneva.


Impact on the indigenous peoples of Brazil

In addition to environmental harm, the slash-and-burn actions leading to the wildfires have threatened the approximately 306,000 indigenous people in Brazil who reside near or within the rainforest.With contributions by Mauro Toledo Rodrigues Bolsonaro had spoken out against the need to respect the demarcation of lands for indigenous people established in the 1988
Constitution of Brazil The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil) is the supreme law of Brazil. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of Brazil and the fede ...
. According to a CBC report on Brazil's wildfires, representatives of the indigenous people have stated that farmers, loggers, and miners, emboldened by the Brazilian government's policies, have forced these people out of their lands, sometimes through violent means, and equated their methods with
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...
. Additionally, some indigenous groups that have traditionally used fire management practices for agricultural livelihoods are being criminalized. Some of these tribes have vowed to fight back against those engaged in deforestation to protect their lands. Kerexu Yxapyry, a leader from Santa Catarina's Kerexu tribe, describes this conflict as, "We know our struggle will be arduous. Maybe many of our leaders will be killed, but we are organized. And we are going to defend our rights." ''For more on the impacts of displacement on populations,''


International responses

International leaders and environmental NGOs have condemned President Bolsonaro for the extent of the wildfires within the Brazilian portion of the Amazon. Several international governments and environmental groups raised concerns at Bolsonaro's stance on the rainforest and the lack of attempts by his government to slow the wildfires. Among the most vocal was Macron, given the proximity of French Guiana to Brazil. Macron called the Amazon wildfires an "international crisis", while claiming the rainforest produces "20% of the world's oxygen"—a statement disputed by academics. He said, "Our house is burning. Literally." Discussion about the fires came into the final negotiations of the EU–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement between the EU and
Mercosur The Southern Common Market, commonly known by Spanish abbreviation Mercosur, and Portuguese Mercosul, is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Arge ...
, a
trade bloc A trade bloc is a type of intergovernmental agreement, often part of a regional intergovernmental organization, where barriers to trade (tariffs and others) are reduced or eliminated among the participating states. Trade blocs can be stand-alone ...
of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. With the wildfires on-going, both Macron and Irish Prime Minister
Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to D ...
have stated they will refuse to ratify the trade deal unless Brazil commits to protecting the environment. However, they have both been accused of using the fires as a pretext to scuttle an agreement that they already opposed on
protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
grounds. Finance minister of Finland Mika Lintilä suggested the idea of an EU ban on Brazilian beef imports until the country takes steps to stop the deforestation. The Secretary-General of the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN), Øyvind Eggen, said that neither the "official deforestation figures" published by Brazilian authorities on November 18, 2019, nor the number of wildfires in Amazon in 2019, were normal. According to the RFN,"We are approaching a potential tipping point, where large parts of the forest will be so damaged that he rainforestcollapses."


Preserving the Amazon: A Shared Moral Imperative

On September 10, 2019, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing in Washington, DC entitled "Preserving the Amazon: A Shared Moral Imperative". In her testimony presented to the hearing,
Peterson Institute for International Economics The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), known until 2006 as the Institute for International Economics (IIE), is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by C. Fred Bergsten in 1981 and has been led b ...
(PIIE) economist, Monica de Bolle likened the rainforest to a "carbon bomb", as the fires lit for deforestation "may release as much as 200 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere a year, which would spur climate change at a much faster rate, not to mention associated changes in rainfall patterns that may result from deforestation."


Fires in Bolivia


Background

In Bolivia, ''chaqueo'' is an annual seasonal agricultural practice and commonly relies on the controlled use of fire. It was first authorized in 2001 during the government of Hugo Banzer Suarez. Bolivia has 7.7 percent of the Amazon rainforest within its borders. The Bolivian Amazon covers which comprise 37.7 percent of Bolivia's forests and 17.7 percent of Bolivia's land mass. Bolivia's forests cover a total of , including the
Chiquitano dry forests The Chiquitano dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in Bolivia and Brazil. The ecoregion is named for the Chiquitano people who live in the region. Setting The Chiquitano dry forests cover an area of . The ecoregion lies eas ...
which is part of the
Amazon biome The Amazon biome ( pt, Bioma Amazônia) contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater and white ...
and a transition zone between the Amazon rainforest and the drier forests of the southern Chaco region. By September 14, 2019, Bolivia—which is one-eighth the size of Brazil—lost nearly of "forest and savanna". The fires destroyed about the same area of rainforest than in Brazil.


Santa Cruz Department

By August 16, Bolivia's Santa Cruz had declared a departmental emergency because of the forest fires. From August 18 to August 23, approximately of the
Chiquitano dry forests The Chiquitano dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in Bolivia and Brazil. The ecoregion is named for the Chiquitano people who live in the region. Setting The Chiquitano dry forests cover an area of . The ecoregion lies eas ...
were destroyed, more than what was lost over a typical two-year period. By August 24, the fires had already affected of forestland in the Santa Cruz and were burning near Santa Cruz, Bolivia. By August 26, wildfires had reached over of Bolivia's
savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground ...
and tropical forests, according to the Bolivian Information Agency (BIA). Over a period of five days, from August 18 to August 22, of forest near
Roboré Roboré is a town in eastern Bolivia. Located in Chiquitos Province, Roboré was founded by Dr. Ángel Sandoval in November 26th, 1947. It is home to the ''Regimiento De Infanteria 15 Junin Roboré'' On August 25, 4,000 state employees and volunteers were fighting the fires. By August 25, the Chiquitano regions has seen of tropical forest burned within both the Amazon and the dry forests, mostly within the Santa Cruz province; like the Brazil fires, such fires occur during the dry season, but the number of fires in 2019 were larger than in previous years. Throughout August, wildfires have been spreading across four states. y_August_26,_fires_in_the_Dionisio_Foianini_Triangle—the_Brazil-Bolivia-Paraguay_triangle_had_reached_savannah_and_tropical_forest_"near_Bolivia's_border_with_Paraguay_and_Brazil". The_Bolivian_government_intervened_after_it_was_clear_that_the_fires_had_surpassed_local_and_regional_response_capabilities._In_the_week_of_August_18,_Morales_dispatched_soldiers_and_three_helicopters_to_fight_fires_in_an_area_about_the_size_of_Oregon._On_August_22,_Morales_contracted_the_Colorado-based_ y_August_26,_fires_in_the_Dionisio_Foianini_Triangle—the_Brazil-Bolivia-Paraguay_triangle_had_reached_savannah_and_tropical_forest_"near_Bolivia's_border_with_Paraguay_and_Brazil". The_Bolivian_government_intervened_after_it_was_clear_that_the_fires_had_surpassed_local_and_regional_response_capabilities._In_the_week_of_August_18,_Morales_dispatched_soldiers_and_three_helicopters_to_fight_fires_in_an_area_about_the_size_of_Oregon._On_August_22,_Morales_contracted_the_Colorado-based_747_Supertanker">Boeing_747_Supertanker_(also_known_as_Global_SuperTanker)_to_conduct_firefighting_missions_over_the_Bolivian_Amazon._The_747_Supertanker_is_the_largest_firefighting_aircraft_in_the_world,_which_can_hold_approximately_19,000_gallons_of_water_per_trip._Morales_has_stated_that_the_governments_of_many_countries_including_Spain,_Chile,_Perú,_France,_the_EU,_among_others_have_reached_out_to_him_to_provide_help_for_fighting_the_fires. The_government_had_been_trying_to_determine_the_cause_of_the_fires,_with_the_Forest_and_Land_Authority.html" ;"title="747_Supertanker.html" ;"title="Dionisio_Foianini_Triangle.html" ;"title="y August 26, fires in the
y_August_26,_fires_in_the_Dionisio_Foianini_Triangle—the_Brazil-Bolivia-Paraguay_triangle_had_reached_savannah_and_tropical_forest_"near_Bolivia's_border_with_Paraguay_and_Brazil". The_Bolivian_government_intervened_after_it_was_clear_that_the_fires_had_surpassed_local_and_regional_response_capabilities._In_the_week_of_August_18,_Morales_dispatched_soldiers_and_three_helicopters_to_fight_fires_in_an_area_about_the_size_of_Oregon._On_August_22,_Morales_contracted_the_Colorado-based_747_Supertanker">Boeing_747_Supertanker_(also_known_as_Global_SuperTanker)_to_conduct_firefighting_missions_over_the_Bolivian_Amazon._The_747_Supertanker_is_the_largest_firefighting_aircraft_in_the_world,_which_can_hold_approximately_19,000_gallons_of_water_per_trip._Morales_has_stated_that_the_governments_of_many_countries_including_Spain,_Chile,_Perú,_France,_the_EU,_among_others_have_reached_out_to_him_to_provide_help_for_fighting_the_fires. The_government_had_been_trying_to_determine_the_cause_of_the_fires,_with_the_Forest_and_Land_Authority">Bolivian_land_management_authority_attributing_87%_of_the_fires_present_in_areas_without_authorization._Multiple_NGOs_assert_that_deforestation_rates_in_Bolivia_increased_200_percent_after_the_government_quadrupled_available_land_for_deforestation_to_small_farmers_in_2015. Political_opponents_of_Morales_alleged_that_th
Supreme_Decree_3973
,_a_mandate_to_further_beef_production_in_the_Amazon_region,_is_a_major_cause_of_the_Bolivian_fires._However,_this_Supreme_Decree_only_extends_the_authorized_but_regulated_use_of_fire_already_legal_in_Santa_Cruz_to_the_Beni_Department,_where_forest_fire_issues_are_not_a_significant_issue. By_September_9,_total_forests_that_had_been_affected_by_fires_in_Bolivia_was_estimated_as_,_more_than_double_from_estimates_two_weeks_prior,_but_far_less_extended_than_the_forest_fires_that_occurred_in_2004_and_2010._While_some_local_government_officials_and_opposition_leaders_have_pled_with_Morales_to_update_the_situation_from_national_emergengy_to_national_disaster,_but_minister_of_communication_Manuel_Canelas_said_that_Bolivia_"is_not_overwhelmed"_by_fires_to_make_this_declaration,_and_that_national_emergency_is_sufficient_to_receive_any_type_of_foreign_cooperation.


_Fires_in_Paraguay's_Pantanal

By_August_22,_fire_emergencies_in_Paraguay's_Alto_Paraguay_Department.html" "title="Dionisio Foianini Triangle">y August 26, fires in the Dionisio Foianini Triangle—the Brazil-Bolivia-Paraguay triangle had reached savannah and tropical forest "near Bolivia's border with Paraguay and Brazil". The Bolivian government intervened after it was clear that the fires had surpassed local and regional response capabilities. In the week of August 18, Morales dispatched soldiers and three helicopters to fight fires in an area about the size of Oregon. On August 22, Morales contracted the Colorado-based 747 Supertanker">Boeing 747 Supertanker (also known as Global SuperTanker) to conduct firefighting missions over the Bolivian Amazon. The 747 Supertanker is the largest firefighting aircraft in the world, which can hold approximately 19,000 gallons of water per trip. Morales has stated that the governments of many countries including Spain, Chile, Perú, France, the EU, among others have reached out to him to provide help for fighting the fires. The government had been trying to determine the cause of the fires, with the Forest and Land Authority">Bolivian land management authority attributing 87% of the fires present in areas without authorization. Multiple NGOs assert that deforestation rates in Bolivia increased 200 percent after the government quadrupled available land for deforestation to small farmers in 2015. Political opponents of Morales alleged that th
Supreme Decree 3973
, a mandate to further beef production in the Amazon region, is a major cause of the Bolivian fires. However, this Supreme Decree only extends the authorized but regulated use of fire already legal in Santa Cruz to the Beni Department, where forest fire issues are not a significant issue. By September 9, total forests that had been affected by fires in Bolivia was estimated as , more than double from estimates two weeks prior, but far less extended than the forest fires that occurred in 2004 and 2010. While some local government officials and opposition leaders have pled with Morales to update the situation from national emergengy to national disaster, but minister of communication Manuel Canelas said that Bolivia "is not overwhelmed" by fires to make this declaration, and that national emergency is sufficient to receive any type of foreign cooperation.


Fires in Paraguay's Pantanal

By August 22, fire emergencies in Paraguay's Alto Paraguay Department">Alto Paraguay Alto Paraguay (; ''Upper Paraguay'') is the least populous as well as a sparsely populated department of Paraguay. The capital is the town of Fuerte Olimpo. In 1992, the Chaco Department was merged with Alto Paraguay. Nature and national parks ...
district and the UNESCO protected
Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and ...
region were issued by its federal government. Paraguay President Mario Abdo Benítez was in close contact with Bolivia's Morales to coordinate response efforts. By August 17, as wind direction changed, flames from fires in Bolivia began to enter northern Paraguay's Three Giants natural reserve in the Paraguayan Pantanal natural region. By August 24, when the situation had stabilized, Paraguay had lost in the Pantanal. An
Universidad Nacional de Asunción The Universidad Nacional de Asunción or Mbo'ehaovusu Tetãgua Paraguaygua, abbreviated UNA, anglicized as, The National University of Asuncion, is a public university founded in San Lorenzo, Paraguay. Founded in 1889, it is the oldest and most tr ...
representative lamented the disaster failed to attract as much media attention as the fires in the Amazon rainforest. While most of the Pantanal regions——is within Brazil's borders in the state of
Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul () is one of the Midwestern states of Brazil. Neighboring Brazilian states are (from north clockwise) Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay, to the southwest, and ...
, the natural region also extends into
Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP. Neighboring ...
and portions of
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
. It sprawls over an area estimated at between . Within the
Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and ...
natural region, which is located between Brazil and Bolivia, is the "world's largest tropical wetland area". According one of the engineers charged with monitoring satellite data showing the "evolution of the fires", the Pantanal is a "complex, fragile, and high-risk ecosystem because it's being transformed from a wetland to a productive system". The Pantana is bounded by the
Humid Chaco The Humid Chaco (Spanish: ''Chaco Húmedo'' or ''Chaco Oriental'') is tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in South America. It lies in the basin of the Paraná River, covering portions of central Paraguay and northern Argenti ...
to the south, the
Arid Chaco The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gros ...
dry forests to the southwest,
Cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ...
savannas lie to the north, east and southeast, and the
Chiquitano dry forests The Chiquitano dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in Bolivia and Brazil. The ecoregion is named for the Chiquitano people who live in the region. Setting The Chiquitano dry forests cover an area of . The ecoregion lies eas ...
, to the west and northwest, where thousands of hectares burned in Bolivia. A national parks researcher said that outsiders only know the Amazon, which is a "shame because the Pantanal is a very important ecological place". The
Paraná River The Paraná River ( es, Río Paraná, links=no , pt, Rio Paraná, gn, Ysyry Parana) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Br ...
, which flows through Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, is the "second largest river system in South America".


Fires in Peru

Peru had nearly twice the growth in the number of fires in 2019 than Brazil, with most believed to be illegally set by ranchers, miners, and
coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, ...
growers. Much of the fires are in the Madre de Dios which borders Brazil and Bolivia, though the fires there are not a result of those started in the other countries, according to the regional authority. However, they are still concerned about the impact of downwind emissions, particularly carbon monoxide, on residents of Madre de Dios. There were 128 forest fires reported in Peru in August 2019.


Environmental impacts of the fires


Emissions

By August 22, NASA's AIRS published maps of increased carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide resulting from Brazil's wildfires. On the same day, the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
's
Copernicus Climate Change Service The Copernicus Climate Change Service (abbreviated as C3S) is one of the six thematic services provided by the European Union's Copernicus Programme. The Copernicus Programme is managed by the European Commission and the C3S is implemented by the ...
reported a "discernible spike" in emissions of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide generated by the fires. Areas downwind of the fires have become covered with smoke, which can potentially last upwards of months at a time if the fires are left to burn out. Hospitals in cities like
Porto Velho Porto Velho (, ''Old Port'') is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin, and a Catholic Metropolitan Archbishopric. The population is 548,952 people (as of the IBGE 2021 estimation). Located on the border of ...
had reported over three times the average number of cases of patients affected by smoke over the same year-to-year period in August 2019 than in other previous years. Besides hindering breathing, the smoke can exacerbates patients with
asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...
or
bronchitis Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...
and have potential cancer risk, generally affecting the youth and elderly the most.


Biodiversity

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the jaguar, for example, is already "near threatened" and the loss of food supplies and habitat due to the fires make the situation more critical. Scientists at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum in London described how while some forests have adapted to fire as "important part of a forest ecosystem's natural cycle", the Amazon rainforest—which is "made up of lowland, wetland forests"—is "not well-equipped to deal with fire". Other Amazon basin ecosystems, like the Cerrado region, with its "large savannah, and lots of plants there have thick, corky, fire-resistant stems", is "fire-adapted". Mazeika Sullivan, associate professor at Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources, explained that the fires could have a massive toll on wildlife in the short term as many animals in the Amazon are not adapted for extraordinary fires. Sloths, lizards, anteaters, and frogs may unfortunately perish in larger numbers than others due to their small size and lack of mobility. Endemism, Endemic species, like Milton's titi and Mura's saddleback tamarin, are believed to be beset by the fires. Aquatic species could also be affected due to the fires changing the water chemistry into a state unsuitable for life. Long-term effects could be more catastrophic. Parts of the Amazon rainforest's dense Canopy (biology), canopy were destroyed by the fires, therefore, exposing the lower levels of the ecosystem, which then alters the Energy flow (ecology), energy flow of the food chain. The fires affect water chemistry (such as decreasing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water), temperature, and erosion rates, which in turn affects fish and mammals that depend on fish, such as the giant otter.


International actions

On August 22, the Bishops Conference for Latin America called the fires a "tragedy" and urged the UN, the international community, and governments of Amazonian countries, to "take serious measures to save the world's lungs". Colombian President Ivan Duque stated he wanted to lead a conservation pact with the other nations that share the Amazon rainforest with plans to present this to the United Nations General Assembly, UN General Assembly. Duque said, "We must understand the protection of our Mother Earth and our Amazon is a duty, a moral duty." United Nations Secretary General António Guterres stated on August 23, that: "In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity."


G7 Summit and emergency aid

Attention to the wildfires increased in the week prior to the Group of Seven, G7 45th G7 summit, summit discussions on August 24–26 in Biarritz, France, led by President Macron. Macron stated his intent to open discussions related to the wildfires in the Brazilian part of the Amazon and Bolsonaro's response to them. Merkel has also backed Macron's statements and planned to make the issue a part of the G7 discussions; via a spokesperson, Merkel stated: "The extent of the fires in the Amazon area is shocking and threatening, not only for Brazil and the other affected countries, but also for the whole world." Macron further stated that possible international statute to protect the rainforest may be needed "if a sovereign state took concrete actions that clearly went against the interest of the planet". Bolsonaro expressed concern to United States president Donald Trump, that with Brazil not part of the G7, the country would be unrepresented in any such debate. Trump offered to take the position of the Brazilian government to the meeting and said that the US government did not agree to discuss the issue without Brazil's presence. Trump himself was absent from the environmental portion of the summit held on August 26, 2019, that discussed the fires and climate change, though members of his advisory team were in attendance. During the summit, Macron and Chilean president Sebastián Piñera negotiated with the other nations to authorize in emergency funding to Amazonian countries to help fight the fires. The Trump administration did not approve of the measure as the funding set certain requirements on its use. When the final negotiations were completed, Bolsonaro stated that he would refuse those funds for Brazil, claiming that Macron's interests were about protecting France's agricultural business in French Guiana from Brazil's competition. Bolsonaro also criticised Macron by comparing the Amazon fires to the Notre-Dame de Paris fire earlier in 2019, suggesting Macron should take care of their internal fires before reaching out internationally. The governors of the states of Brazil most affected by the fires pressured Bolsonaro to accept the aid given. Bolsonaro later clarified that he would accept foreign aid for the fires, but only if Brazil has the authority to determine how it is used.


Amazon country summit

Brazil's Bolsonaro stated on August 28, 2019, that the countries sharing the Amazon rainforest, excluding Venezuela, will hold a summit in Colombia on September 6, 2019, to discuss the ongoing Amazon fire situation. Representatives from seven countries attended: Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana and Suriname. The countries signed a pact to coordinate monitoring of the Amazon forest and disaster response, and a better information network to coordinate their responses. The pact will also seek cooperative efforts to reduce the need for illegal deforestation in their countries.


2019 wildfires in the media

The media coverage had also broadly overshadowed the Amazon fires in
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
,
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
, and
Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...
by the fires and international impact of those in the BLA. The Amazon wildfires also occurred shortly after major wildfires reported in Greenland and 2019 Siberia wildfires, Siberia after a globally hotter-than-average June and July, drawing away coverage of these natural disasters. Some of these photographs shared on social media were from past fire events in the Amazon or from fires elsewhere. Agence France-Presse and ''El Comercio (Peru), El Comercio'' published guides to help people "fact-check" on misleading photos.


Celebrity responses to Amazon wildfires

American actor Leonardo DiCaprio said his environmental organization Earth Alliance is donating $5 million to local groups and indigenous communities to help protect the Amazon. In a webcast on November 28, 2019, President
Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
said DiCaprio's donations encourage NGOs to set the fires in return for donations, a charge DiCaprio, Global Wildlife Conservation, and IUCN Species Survival Commission vehemently denied. Instagram has been a platform for many celebrities who have spoken out about the wildfires such as Cara Delevingne, who posted a picture of the wildfires with the caption "#PrayForAmazonia". Other celebrities who made public contributions include actresses Vanessa Hudgens and Lana Condor, and Japanese musician Yoshiki (musician), Yoshiki. On August 26, 2019, Europe's richest man, Bernard Arnault, declared that his LVMH group will donate $11 million to aid in the fight against the Amazon rainforest wildfires. American restaurateur Eddie Huang said he is going Veganism, vegan as a result of the 2019 Amazon fires. Khloé Kardashian urged her 98 million Instagram followers to adopt a plant-based diet for the same reason. Leonardo DiCaprio told his Instagram followers to "eliminate or reduce consumption of beef" as "cattle ranching is one of the primary drivers of deforestation." 2021 single "Amazonia (song), Amazonia" by French metal band Gojira (band), Gojira and its music video are a response the fires.


See also

* 2019 Alberta wildfires * 2019 California wildfires * 2019 Siberia wildfires * 2019 United Kingdom wildfires * 2019 Washington wildfires * 2019 wildfire season * 2019 Southeast Asian haze * 2019–20 Australian bushfire season * 2020 Brazil rainforest wildfires * Deforestation in Brazil


Notes


References


External links

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Current worldwide map of airborne particulates about one micrometer in diameter, including smoke
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