Erica Cristina has been breathing smoke every day since a major fire broke out across the river from the city of Corumba, the gateway to Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland.
The blaze, which filled the bar she owns with soot, is one of hundreds in the vast, natural Pantanal, which is seeing record fires for this time of year.
“It’s chaotic,” said the 44-year-old in central-west Corumba, where the fire last week turned the sky bright red.
This longtime resident of the Pantanal region, originally from Rio de Janeiro, said the increasing fires were making the situation for residents “worse as the years passed.”
“Many people have lost their homes” to fires since 2020 – the worst year on record for fires in the region – and “the main problems are due to health and respiratory problems,” says Cristina.
In the first half of this year, satellites recorded more than 3,300 fires in the region slightly larger than England, 33% more than in 2020.
Experts say the fires are the result of severe drought linked to climate change and deliberate fires aimed at expanding farmland into forests that are growing out of control.
The Pantanal, which extends to Bolivia and Paraguay, is home to millions of caimans, parrots, giant otters and the world’s highest density of jaguars.
Seasonal flooding in plains, swamps, savannas and forest areas during the rainy season is crucial for the biodiverse ecosystem.
Environment Minister Marina Silva warned on Monday that the Pantanal was facing “one of the worst situations ever seen”.
“We didn’t have the usual flooding or the gap between El Nino and La Nina,” two weather phenomena that affect rainfall, she said.
A study published Wednesday by the MapBiomas network shows that the Pantanal’s wet surface was 61% drier last year than the historical average.
The drought “resulted in a large amount of organic material at the combustion point causing these fires,” said Silva, who will visit the region on Friday.
Fires are already reaching new records before the peak of the dry season.
“Strong winds, fire and heat usually start in August,” but “it hasn’t rained in the region for 50 days,” said Bruno Bellan, a 25-year-old farmer.
Bellan has 900 head of cattle on his family farm in Mato Grosso do Sul state, home to much of the wetlands, which declared a state of emergency on Monday because of the fires.
His property is two kilometers from a large fire that firefighters have had difficulty gaining access to.
“We are concerned that the fire will enter the farm and cause destruction. The cattle are scared and could get lost in the flames,” Bellan said.
Retired soldier Naldinei Ivan Ojeda, 53, said he was considering leaving his hometown because of breathing problems he and his 15-year-old son were having.
He places the blame squarely on the people who start the fires, and not on the dry conditions that fuel the fires.
“There are no accidental fires in the Pantanal. I’ve never seen a fire start out of nowhere here. Every year it’s the same.”
