Brazil's Amazon rainforest sees record fires in August due to climate change, deforestation

Following the record drought that has been plaguing the biome, the number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest in August surged to its highest level since 2010, according to government data released on Sunday.

The delayed and weaker-than-usual rains last year, exacerbated by the El Niño weather pattern and intensified by climate change, have left the rainforest especially vulnerable to this year’s fires.

Satellites detected 38,266 fire hotspots in the Amazon in August, more than double compared to the previous year and the largest number for that month since 2010, data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) showed.

The August data reaching a 14-year high comes after last month’s fire hotspots in the region surged to a two-decade high.

While the data is the fastest indicator of the state of fires in the region, which often peak between August and September, it does not indicate the intensity.

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Unlike wildfires in Europe or the United States, fires in the humid, tropical Amazon rainforest do not occur naturally. Instead, farmers clear the land by cutting down trees and setting them on fire, which can sometimes lead to uncontrollable blazes.

August and September mark the peak of the dry season in the Amazon, making it more difficult to manage these fires. Relief typically arrives with the gradual onset of the rainy season in October.

Fires in the naturally wet and humid biome often start on cattle ranches where locals are converting the jungle into pastures for cattle ranching.

Warmer air and drier vegetation have created conditions where fires can spread more rapidly as well as burn more intensely and for longer. Deforestation has also reduced the rainforest’s ability to produce rain and humidity.

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Helga Correa, a conservation specialist at WWF-Brasil, said in an initial assessment of the August data last week that the fires were driven by a combination of weather, climate change and human actions.

”The region where we detected concentrated smoke in August coincides with the so-called Arch of Deforestation, which includes the north of Rondonia, the south of Amazonas and the southwest of Para,” she said.

”This indicates that, in addition to climate change and El Nino, changes in land use produced by humans play a central role in the increase in fires,” she said.

With inputs from agencies.