Fires continue to expand in the Pantanal. The biome broke records for fires in the first semester, and July figures are the worst recorded since monitoring began.
The fires in the Pantanal grew about 241% compared to the same month of 2019. In July, the Queimadas Program, from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), registered 1,684 hot spots in the Pantanal. In the same period, in 2019, there were 494.
In addition to the high total number, the strong percentage growth is among the three highest recorded for the month.
The flames are advancing despite the federal government's ban on burning fires in the Pantanal and the Amazon for 120 days (which also saw a considerable increase in fires in July).
Before Jair Bolsonaro's government (without a party) had pass legislature regarding the Pantanal, Mato Grosso had already banned, from July 1 to September 30, the practice of burning in the state.
The July record includes the months of March and April, which also had the highest values of hot spots ever recorded by Inpe in the biome.
In the first six months of 2020, the Pantanal had 2,534 fire spots. Before, the highest value had been registered in 2009, with 2,216 outbreaks.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon