Brazil should register another huge amount of wildfires in the coming months, due to dry season and human activity. The alert was made by the geographer Wagner Ribeiro, professor at the Postgraduate Program of Environmental Science from the University of São Paulo (USP), in an interview to Conexão BdF, from Brasil de Fato Radio. “July and August register less incidences of rain, and it’s also a period when criminal practices of setting fire into areas take place”, he stated.
The fire destroyed around 30 million hectares in Brazil in 2024, 62% above historic average. Ribeiro highlighted that biomes such as Pantanal, Cerrado, Amazônia and Mata Atlântica were extremely affected. He stresses the need to differentiate traditional fires to arsons. “This cannot go by unscathed. We can’t be tolerant with this kind of practice in the 21st century”, he said. “Losing our sociobiodiversity means losing the future of our country ” he says.
The report also points out that part of the fires originated in pasture areas, used by land grabbers and farmers. For the professor, this kind of fire is easily recognized and “should be restrained”. “When you see someone putting fire on the roadside, for instance, in a reserved or preserved area, it’s necessary to report and call as fast as possible the Civil Defense team, the fire brigade, firefighters and even the forest guard”, suggested him.
Ribeiro also says that the expansion of deforestation increases the risk of fires reaching urban areas, which can be ignited even by natural phenomena. “It’s worsened by human activity. We are deforesting too much, these areas are becoming drier each day, and so, even a small spark, which is something natural, can cause fire”, he explained.
For him, it’s fundamental to combine the use of monitoring technology with quick action from brigades and regulatory bodies.
