2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires

There are of Amazon rainforest. Human-driven deforestation of the Amazon rainforest 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, and estimated to capture up to 25% of global carbon dioxide generation into plants and other biomass. 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. 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 than forest, under certain climate change conditions which are exacerbated by anthropogenic activities. Human-driven deforestation of the Amazon is used to clear land for agriculture, livestock, and mining, and for its lumber. Fires are most common in July through August. 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. 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 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. Forest removal to make way for cattle ranching 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. Seventy percent of formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, is used for livestock pasture. According to the Center for International Forestry Research (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". 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. 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. Fire counts have generally been higher in years of drought (2007 and 2010), which are often coupled with El Niño events. Brazil also invested in more effective measures to fight fires, including fire-fighting airplanes in 2012. By 2014, USAID 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, 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. 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. 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". Jair Bolsonaro was elected as President of Brazil 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, 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. 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 , Brazil in August 2019. 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 Greater London by the end of the month. 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. 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 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. satellite imagery of a area along the Purus River between Canutama and Lábrea in the state of Amazonas, taken on August 16, 2019, showing several plumes of smoke from wildfires, including areas that have been deforested 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—which is almost away from the Amazon basin on the eastern coast. NASA and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also published satellite imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite in alignment with INPE's own, that showed smoke plumes from the wildfires were visible from space. According to Vox, of all the concurrent wildfires elsewhere in the world, the wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil were the most "alarming". 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, 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'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 Angela Merkel, Bolsonaro stated: "They still haven't realized that Brazil is under new direction. That there's now a president who is loyal to [the] Brazilian people, who says the Amazon is ours, who says bad Brazilians can't release lying numbers and campaign against Brazil." 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, but the Defense Ministry stated they plan to offer support for all seven states affected by the fires. After a report from Globo Rural reveal that a WhatsApp group of 70 people was involved with the Day of Fire, Jair Bolsonaro determined the opening of investigations by Federal Police. 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. Brazil banned clearing land by setting fire to it on 29 August 2019. More measures taken by the Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro 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 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. 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. Bolsonaro had spoken out against the need to respect the demarcation of lands for indigenous people established in the 1988 Constitution of Brazil. 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 based in Argentina, showing burned forest 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, a trade bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. With the wildfires on-going, both Macron and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar 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 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. In her testimony presented to the hearing, Peterson Institute for International Economics (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==

imagery of the southern edge of the Amazon Rainforest, plumes of smoke from agricultural fires burning in Bolivia and Brazil on Aug. 4, 2019 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 which is part of the Amazon biome 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. From August 18 to August 23, approximately of the Chiquitano dry forests 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. Over a period of five days, from August 18 to August 22, of forest near Roboré were burned. On August 25, 4,000 state employees and volunteers were fighting the fires. [By 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. 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 Bolivian land management authority attributing 87% of the fires present in areas without authorization. Political opponents of Morales alleged that the 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==

on August 22, 2019 By August 22, fire emergencies in Paraguay's Alto Paraguay district and the UNESCO protected Pantanal 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 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, the natural region also extends into Mato Grosso and portions of Bolivia. It sprawls over an area estimated at between . Within the Pantanal 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 to the south, the Arid Chaco dry forests to the southwest, Cerrado savannas lie to the north, east and southeast, and the Chiquitano dry forests, to the west and northwest, ==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 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 which depict carbon monoxide caused by fires in the Amazon region of Brazil from Aug. 8-22, 2019. On the same day, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service 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 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 or bronchitis 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 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. 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 were destroyed by the fires, therefore, exposing the lower levels of the ecosystem, which then alters the 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". 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. 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. 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, Peru, and Paraguay by the fires and international impact of those in the BLA. Agence France-Presse and 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 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. Other celebrities who made public contributions include actresses Vanessa Hudgens and Lana Condor, and Japanese 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 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" by French metal band Gojira and its music video are a response the fires. == See also ==