Brazil: Climate Progress Indicators

CONTINUED LARGE NUMBER OF FOREST FIRES AND HEAT OUTBREAKS

There are no updates for the proposed indicators of annual indicators of gas emission (last of 2020) and of vehicle licensing (updated until 2021).

But data currently is available for the total number of active fires, an important indicator, especially if we consider that about 46% of emissions in 2020 originated from Land Use Change and Forests.

According to satellite data from INPE – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – Brazil currently occupies the first place in South America in the ranking with 21522 fires, followed by Venezuela (16660), Argentina (15069), and Colombia (13275), according to position on 06/28/22. The accumulated sum of fires is practically the same as in 2021.

HEAT OUTBREAKS IN THE AMAZON HIGH 23.9% IN THE FIRST FIVE MONTHS OF 2022

The IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) identified 5,172 hotspots in the Amazon biome between January and May 2022. This is a 23.9% increase over the same period last year, when 4,174 hotspots were identified. The record records are still in 2016 (10,389) and 2019 (8,959).

Rural properties were the most affected, concentrating 3,667 hotspots, 71% of the total. In the category of public use, indigenous lands are in the regions most affected by the worsening of deforestation linked to fire. There were 367 hotspots, up 17.3% compared to the same period in 2021.

According to the director of Science at IPAM, Ane Alencar, the efficient presence of the State could prevent an increase in deforestation. “Cutting deforestation means reducing fires in the future, but we cannot expect fires to be reduced because of the rains alone,” she explains.

The Amazon is in a period of drought that lasts until September, reaching its peak in August. Other biomes also suffered from a significant increase in the number of hotspots. In the Cerrado, there were 6,630 records this year, against 5,387 last year. “Only in May of this year, in the Pantanal, the number more than doubled,” says the director, warning of an increase from 273 to 402 outbreaks between 2021 and 2022.

Fires in the Amazon, in general, are related to deforestation. Burning is the last part of the felling process usually used to clear deforested areas for future agricultural activities.

In 2019, a measure signed by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, established new rules for the exploitation of land grabbing. With the changes, it became easier, for example, to obtain the title of land ownership, even without regulation in areas of up to about 1,400 hectares in some municipalities in the Amazon. With that, the new owners could then produce more, which means, according to the expert, more forest to be cut down. To reduce these crimes, it is necessary to have stricter environmental management policies.

This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard Brazil Country Manager Carlos Alexandre de Oliviera

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