Faced with the proliferation of fires in the Amazon, the Brazilian government has published guidelines for the temporary use of the country’s army, navy and air force to fight forest fires that are spreading in the lungs of the planet, a region that has also faced extreme drought in recent months.
The Minister of Defense, José Múcio, ordered the commanders of the three branches of the armed forces “guarantee the efforts“provide operational and logistical resources” to the troops operating in the region.
military support
The military will support the operations through “the provision of remote sensing images“, the use of the fire station with specialized personnel” and the training of the rest of the authorities involved in fighting the flames.
The Executive also asked them quantify the money they need “plan and execute” actions on the ground and designate a series of officers to form a joint command.
The guidelines, which are contained in a Ministerial resolution published This Friday in the Official Journal, they aim to stop the scourge which is causing one of the worst crises in 14 years.
Heat sources
Since 2010, The Amazon in Brazil did not have as many heat sources as the 38,000 recorded in August 2024The figure represents a 120% increase over the 2023 total, which was marked by intense fires and smoke across the state.
In late May and early June 2024, unusually early and intense fires spread across the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil. lack of rain during the rainy season Vegetation dried out and wildfires spread well before the region’s fire season began.
So much so that on September 9, more than Half of Brazilian cities have issued air quality alerts. The low humidity at the time added to the smoke from the fires that reached Brazil’s southernmost state, Río Grande do Sul, more than 4,500 kilometers from Amazonas.
Atypical months
Since the beginning of 2024, the number of heat sources has been breaking records during atypical months.The longer the dry season lasts, the drier the forest.“And with that, there are more opportunities for the fire to spread,” says Erika Berenguer, a specialist in the impact of fires in the Amazon and a researcher at the universities of Oxford and Lancaster in the United Kingdom.
Faced with this situation, last Sunday, a judge of the Supreme Court of Brazil authorized the government to contract extraordinary credits, outside the budgetary limitto combat the “climate emergency” caused by fires spreading across the Amazon and other regions of the country.
Brazil is suffering from the worst drought since 1950 and one of the worst affected regions is the Amazon.
Water crisis
In the largest rainforest on the planet, the water crisis left several rivers at their lowest levels in history and isolated dozens of rural communitiesin addition to promoting the spread of forest fires.
In total, the Brazilian Amazon recorded 63,189 fires between January and August of this year, double those recorded during the same period of 2023.
According to official data, the flames burned nearly seven million hectares during this period, which is equivalent to 1% of the tropical ecosystem.
The Brazilian government suspects that the vast majority of fires are caused by human action. Environment Minister Marina Silva went so far as to call the situation “climate terrorism“.
In recent weeks, smoke from the fires has spread on the winds and damaged the air quality in much of the countryresulting in an increase in cases of respiratory problems among the population.
47% disappearance
Up to 47% of the Amazon rainforest could suffer irreversible alterations and disappear by 2050, according to a publication in the journal Nature that analyzes the potential thresholds that could push the Amazon rainforest to a critical level. point of no return.
The publication highlighted a study in which the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) participated, which estimates that by 2050 between 10 and 47% of Amazonian forests could change irreversibly and disappear.
