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Record-breaking fires in the Brazilian Amazon associated with uncontrolled deforestation

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 1792–1793 (2022)Cite this article

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At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Brazil committed to ambitious goals to fight climate change1. These include reducing greenhouse gases emissions by 50% when compared with 2005 levels by 2030, and achieving zero illegal deforestation by 2028. However, recent record-breaking fires in the Brazilian Amazon highlight a stark reality that is far removed from these lofty promises. Combining August and September of 2022, a two-month ‘fire season’ in half of the Amazon2, 74,398 active fires were recorded in the Brazilian Amazon — the highest number since the severe drought event of 2010 (ref. 3). Alarmingly, the number of active fires on 24 August 2022 (3,358) surpassed the remarkable ‘Fire Day’ of 2019, and during the first eight days of September 2022 the number of active fires detected (>20,000) exceeded the total for this month in 2019 and 2021 (ref. 3).

Troublingly, the largest portion of the August and September 2022 fires (35% of them) were in vulnerable protected areas, Indigenous lands and other public areas that are not required to register with Brazil’s Environmental Rural Registry (Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR))5 (Fig. 1). The CAR is a self-declaratory public electronic registry that is required only for private lands, and is aimed at enhancing law enforcement; although CAR does not establish land ownership, land grabbers have been using this instrument to claim ownership of illegally occupied public lands6. Active fires in these areas have increased by 69% compared with August and September of 20215. In recent years, the Brazilian Amazon has become highly vulnerable to land grabbing (grilagem) and speculation, and these fires are the result.

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Fig. 1: Active fires are on the rise in areas of recent deforestation and areas without CAR.

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Acknowledgements

G.M., L.O.A., L.V.G. and L.E.O.C.A. thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) for funding (grants 2019/25701-8, 2020/08916-8, 2016/02018-2 and 2020/15230-5, respectively). L.O.A. and L.E.O.C.A. thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for funding (grants 314473/2020-3 and 314416/2020-0, respectively). G.d.O. thanks the University of South Alabama Faculty Development Council Grant for funding (grant 279600-2022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Division, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, Brazil

    Guilherme Mataveli, Nathália Carvalho & Luiz E. O. C. Aragão

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA

    Gabriel de Oliveira

  3. Institute of Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Celso H. L. Silva-Junior

  4. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Celso H. L. Silva-Junior

  5. Programa de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, Brazil

    Celso H. L. Silva-Junior

  6. Department of Forestry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Scott C. Stark

  7. National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, São José dos Campos, Brazil

    Liana O. Anderson

  8. General Coordination of Earth Science, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, Brazil

    Luciana V. Gatti

  9. College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Luiz E. O. C. Aragão

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Correspondence to Guilherme Mataveli.

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Mataveli, G., de Oliveira, G., Silva-Junior, C.H.L. et al. Record-breaking fires in the Brazilian Amazon associated with uncontrolled deforestation. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 1792–1793 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01945-2

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