The number of fires in the Amazon in September has already surpassed that of all of September 2019.
As of Tuesday (15), 20,485 hot spots have been recorded in the biome by the program Queimadas, from the National Institute for Space Research. In all of September of last year, there were 19,925 outbreaks.
Three days measured more than 2,000 hot spots, and September has an average of 1,400 fires per day.
The month, along with August, is one of the most critical in terms of burning in the biome, historically, because it is the dry period in the Amazon. Deforesters use this less humid moment to burn the biological material that was previously felled.
The number of fires in the first two weeks of September also already exceeds the recorded total of fires from September of several previous years, such as 2016, 2013, 2011, and more distant periods, such as 1998 and 1999.
The high amount of fires in the Amazon also draws attention because the practice is prohibited in the biome. On July 16, the government published a 120-day ban on the use of fire in the Amazon and the Pantanal in the Official Gazette.
In a moment close to the publication of the ban, however, President Jair Bolsonaro himself (without a party), mocked a possible effect of reducing fires that the measure could cause.
In addition to the ban, the Army, through Operation Green Brazil 2, is still at work in the forest. However, the Armed Forces' use to contain deforestation and environmental crimes does not show results, considering that both deforestation and fires remain at high levels compared to the historical series.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon