Increased Burnings in the Southwestern Amazon’s Arising Deforestation Horizon

Between 2003 and 2019, a swath of the Amazon Rainforest nearly twice the size of Luxembourg was destroyed by fire.

The region is located in the southwest of Amazonas state, in Brazil's northern region, and includes parts of nine municipalities with some of the country's worst sustainable development indicators.

Deforestation had been increasing in the area, owing primarily to illegal logging and other agricultural-related activities along two highways that run through it.

Fire destroyed 4,141 square kilometers (km2) of forest between 2003 and 2009, 3,999 km2 of which was primary (native) vegetation. According to a year-by-year breakdown, the area affected by fire ranged from 33 km2 in 2011 to 681 km2 in 2019. Furthermore, 6,484 km2 of pasture and crops were destroyed during the period.

Emerging deforestation frontier in southwestern Amazon

(Photo : ALAN CHAVES/AFP via Getty Images)

These figures come from a study conducted by scientists at the National Disaster Surveillance and Early Warning Center (CEMADEN) and the National Space Research Institute (INPE), both Brazilian institutions, in collaboration with colleagues at universities and other research institutions in Brazil and abroad, as per Phys.org.

According to the article, which focuses on Boca do Acre, a municipality in Amazonas state, deforestation increased the occurrence of burned areas, resulting in the transformation of the landscape from forest to cropland and pastureland, particularly near highways BR-317 and BR-364.

Factors such as the lengthening of the dry season and the occurrence of more extreme weather events made the region more vulnerable to anthropogenic (human-caused) fires.

Furthermore, the accumulation of organic matter from deforested areas fueled ongoing fires, causing them to spread.

Protected areas, such as conservation units and Indigenous territories, on the other hand, acted as a deterrent to deforestation. In the period 2003-19, the fire destroyed only 189.13 km2, or 1.3% of the total, primarily near roads and farms in the Boca do Acre and Apurin Indigenous Territories.

Their research identified the extent and frequency of fires, as well as correlations with changes in land cover and climate, indicating priority conservation areas.

They've also investigated the fire hazard of forest on undesignated public land and adjacent to rural properties.

Recent deforestation is increasingly close to protected areas, making them even more vulnerable, according to Débora Dutra, the article's first author.

Undesignated land is federal land that has not been designated for a specific use, such as conservation or settlement.

This is the most vulnerable category to encroachment by land grabbers and squatters. The Amazon Rainforest is the world's largest and most biodiverse tropical forest, and it helps to regulate the global climate.

This includes the "flying river," which transports massive amounts of water from the region to the rest of the continent.

Through transpiration, the process by which water traverses the plant and evaporates from aerial parts such as stems, flowers, and canopy leaves, the forest's many trees release water vapor into the atmosphere.

The moisture released into the atmosphere is carried by air currents and deposited as precipitation elsewhere.

Also Read: Brazil's Newly Found Fish Species Are Threatened by Amazon Deforestation

Highest deforestation rate in six years

Researchers concluded in March 2022, based on over three decades of satellite data, that the Amazon rainforest's health is deteriorating, as per BBC.

They found signs of a loss of resilience in more than 75% of the forest, with trees taking longer to recover from droughts caused by climate change, as well as human impacts like deforestation and fires. Last year, at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, more than 100 governments pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.

Environmentalists blame rising levels of deforestation on Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's right-wing president who has rolled back environmental safeguards.

Brazil's environment ministry said it had been aggressive in combating environmental crimes, but it did not mention the increase in deforestation in a statement.

According to Dr. Manoela Machado of the University of Oxford, the high level of deforestation is also fueling a higher than usual number of fires for this time of year.

After trees are felled, fires are frequently started to clear the land for agriculture, so more deforestation means more fires, according to Dr. Machado.