Brazilian federal, state governments to focus on 21 municipalities with over half of Amazon wildfires

Prohibiting and combating forest burnings during the dry months; concentrating firefighting efforts on 21 municipalities responsible for more than half of all Amazon fires and implementing a coordinated approach to integrate defense and inspection forces from federal, state, and municipal agencies.

We will activate all the agencies that have the authority to dissuade and, if necessary, impose administrative, criminal, and even legal sanctions to hold those responsible for the new outbreaks accountable. What we cannot do is invest all our efforts in combating this while simultaneously facing new ignitions, almost all of which are illegal" -  André Lima, Secretary of Deforestation Control and Territorial Planning at the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change

These guidelines were established during an August 21 meeting of members of the Federal Government and governors and representatives of the nine Amazon states and the Pantanal. The meeting took place in the situation room in Brasília for monitoring the effects of the drought in the Amazon and the Pantanal.

The ministers representing the Federal Government were Rui Costa [Chief of Staff/Casa Civil]; Waldez Góes [Integration and Regional Development/Integração e Desenvolvimento Regional/MIDR]; Simone Tebet [Planning and Budget/Planejamento e Orçamento]; Marina Silva [Environment and Climate Change]; Wellington Dias [Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger/Desenvolvimento e Assistência Social, Família e Combate à Fome]; Paulo Teixeira (Agrarian Development and Family Farming/Desenvolvimento Agrário e Agricultura Familiar]; and Laércio Portela [the Presidency's Communications Secretariat/Secretaria de Comunicação da Presidência].

"It was a very important meeting, where the efforts that have been made in the situation room set up 35 days ago were presented, and new strategies and approaches were outlined. In the case of the Amazon, we have IBAMA and ICMBio working together with state governments, and new measures were agreed upon, including looking at the municipalities that are experiencing the most wildfires. We already know the municipalities that deforest the most and now we are focusing on the municipalities that harbor the most hotspots," stated Marina Silva.

One of the challenges is that practically all wildfires have been caused by human action. Among the strategies agreed with the states is the emphasis on prohibiting historically common practices of using fire as a form of land management — and monitoring it more intensely in light of the drought that is the worst in almost 20 years. According to the Federal Government's mapping, the regions with the highest incidence are close to highways that run between Porto Velho (state of Roraima), southern Amazonas, and Novo Progresso, in the state of Pará.

“This area harbors a greater density of people near roads, as well as farmers. In fact, one third of this wildfire is an area for pasture and agriculture; one third is a non-forested area; and the other third is a forested area. We will intensify actions against these wildfire outbreaks across these three regions; most likely, the vast majority, if not all, of these fires are unauthorized," stated André Lima, Extraordinary Secretary of Deforestation Control and Territorial Environmental Planning at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. Lima explained that, within the scope of the Interministerial Commission for Monitoring and Firefighting Actions [Comissão Interministerial de Monitoramento e Ações de Combate a Incêndio], firefighting fronts will be reorganized. "Today, there are 260 wildfires in the Amazon; the Federal Government is leading actions in 178, with almost 1,500 firefighters in 89 brigades. So we are going to coordinate these efforts with the fire departments to combat these wildfires, and at the same time we want to create three inter-federative fronts to act on the new hotspots that come up," he explained.

The idea is to involve the Federal Police, Civil Police, IBAMA, the Environment Secretariat, INCRA, FUNAI and ICMBio. "All the agencies that have the authority to dissuade and, if necessary, apply administrative and criminal sanctions and even legal action to hold those responsible for the new hotspots," he listed. "What we can't do is invest all our efforts in fighting them and, at the same time, see new fires arising, practically all of them illegal."

Divulgação / MMA

PREVENTION – Minister Marina Silva emphasized that there have been a series of coordinated actions by the Federal Government against the wildfires since the transition to the current administration — including efforts to control deforestation; to reestablish professional structures and forces for inspection; and prevention actions and interventions, when necessary, to mitigate the effects of climate events. "When we took office we immediately established the resumption of the plan to combat wildfires and deforestation — and we acted preventively, we set up teams, we worked with extraordinary credit for the Pantanal, we changed the law to hire firefighters quickly and we approved measures such as allowing foreign pilots to operate in Brazil if necessary," said Marina. "There are more than 1,500 municipalities experiencing a climate emergency, whether due to drought or flooding," she added.

CHALLENGE – Minister Waldez Góes, of Integration and Regional Development, also highlighted the climate challenge. "We are perhaps facing one of the worst droughts in Brazil's history, in the Amazon and the Pantanal. In the Pantanal, the drought this year came two months early, which does not mean that the rains and spring will do the same. Therefore, the dry season will be longer. In the Amazon, the drought also came more than a month early," said Góes.

SITUATION – The Federal Government has been monitoring the situation on a daily basis, from three situation rooms, to discuss climate change, define actions and minimize consequences. One of them deals with the floods in Rio Grande do Sul. Another deals with the wildfires in the Pantanal; and the third deals with the drought in the Amazon. "We have had the situation room for the Amazon for over 35 days. This results in work plans and recognition of emergency situations. This room is essential, because it communicates directly with the governors and organizes the relationship with those at the baseline, which are the municipalities and the workers," added Waldez Góes.

CIVIL DEFENSE – As a result of this work, the MIDR has released, to date, BRL 13.4 million for disaster response actions in Mato Grosso do Sul. The resource was earmarked for humanitarian assistance, which includes purchasing basic food baskets, water, fuel, personal protective equipment, and items for personal hygiene, among others. The MIDR also recognized the emergency situation in 12 municipalities in the state: Aquidauana, Bodoquena, Bonito, Corumbá, Coxim, Deodápolis, Douradina, Dourados, Naviraí, Nioaque, Porto Murtinho and Sidrolândia. In the Amazon, the transfer of BRL 11.7 million to the region has already been approved to date. The resource will be earmarked for civil defense efforts in the states of Amazonas and Roraima. The MIDR also recognized the emergency situation in 53 municipalities in Acre, Amazonas, Roraima and Rondônia and approved eight work plans.

PARTNERSHIP – The governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, emphasized that this union between the spheres of government is essential to reduce the impacts caused by the drought. “Alone, the state and federal governments, as well as the city governments, cannot succeed in their responses. Coordinated action reduces the impacts of the drought as much as possible,” he stated, noting that the situation has impacts on the population and the economy. “Many people have a hard time accessing food and drinking water. Furthermore, in Amazonas, the rivers are our roads, and economic activity is carried out through transportation on the rivers,” he added.

The governor of Roraima, Antônio Denarium, reinforced the importance of the partnership between all spheres of government. “I would like to congratulate the Federal Government for the preventive work alongside the states in the attempt to combat deforestation and forest wildfires”, he said.