Fires on Nine Farms Destroyed 141,000 Hectares in the Pantanal

This year, the biome has already burned more than 21% of its area

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Fabiano Maisonnave

Fires that started on nine farms in the Pantanal destroyed 141,773 hectares of vegetation, an area slightly smaller than the municipality of São Paulo.

Four of these farms were identified by the Federal Police (PF) in Operation Matáá, which investigates illegal fires in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul. The sum of these outbreaks was responsible for the destruction of 25 thousand hectares.

The other five rural properties are located in Mato Grosso and started fires that would have destroyed 116,773 hectares.

The survey is by the NGO Repórter Brasil after crossing data from the Centro de Vida Institute (ICV) with the data from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). Folha confirmed the information.

A volunteer combats a fire and tries to protect one of the 119 wooden bridges alond the Transpantaneira park road which crosses the Pantanal, world's largest tropical wetland, in Mato Grosso State, Brazil, on September 13, 2020. - The Pantanal, a region famous for its wildlife, is suffering its worst fires in more than 47 years, destroying vast areas of vegetation and causing death of animals caught in the fire or smoke. (Photo by Mauro PIMENTEL / AFP) - AFP

Both the PF and the ICV compared the satellite monitoring of the hot spots of Inpe (National Institute of Special Research) and Nasa, the North American space agency.

From the beginning of the year until Sunday (20), the area burned in the Pantanal reached 3,179,000 hectares, equivalent to 21.2% of the biome. Despite having the smallest part of the Pantanal, Mato Grosso is the most devastated state, with 1,941,000 hectares.

Translated by Kiratiana Freelon

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