ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Fire Devours Savannah and Amazon Forests

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 16 1998 (IPS) - The El Nino climatic phenomenon added drought, high temperature and strong winds to the “burning season” in Amazonia, fanning fires which destroyed the State of Roraima in the far north of Brazil.

This was the explanation given by Reinaldo Imbrizio from the Amazon Research Institute (INPA) of the fire in Roraima, striking small farmers and indigenous people on the frontier with Venezuela and Guyana particularly hard.

The burning of grasslands, old crops and forests is normal procedure in Roraima and other areas of Brazil due to “the low technological level” of the agricultural and livestock activity. But this year, the fire got completely out of control aided by the reigning climatic conditions, he said.

Barbosa calculated 16.1 percent of the territory of Roraima had been burnt by late Saturday, that is, 30,000 kilometers of savannah and 6,500 of forests or deforested area in a state covering 230,000 square kilometers.

Meanwhile, state authorities said the fires had destroyed 25 percent of the total area. There are 3,000 fires out of control throughout the state, said Pedro Estevam, director of the Roraima government Agriculture and Livestock Production department.

The fire, which has already been burning for two months, has killed around 20,000 head of cattle – five percent of local stocks – and has destroyed practically all crops, except for the irrigated rice, said Estevam.

“Not a drop of rain has fallen for eight months, which is not typical,” substantially affecting the subsistence agriculture of the indigenous people and around 50,000 small rural farmers, generally migrants from other areas of Brazil.

Efforts to control the flames now have support from central government, including the army. Expert fire-fighters flew into Roraima from Brasilia, to direct operations, although little could really be done given the extent of the catastrophe.

Barbosa said the fire has now passed its peak – which lasted from late February until the present. “Most of the biomass which can burn has done so, and now there are only the residual fires,” he said.

Weather forecasts do not include heavy rains until the end of April, although small “hopeful showers” as the local population call them, could occur earlier, said the researcher.

The fires, of an unprecedented extension and strength for Roraima, invaded the forests of the Yanomami indian reserve. The National Indian Foundation, official aid body for the indigenous population, say 15 square kilometers have been burnt within this area.

But there are other indigenous groups in the state, numbering a total of 37,000, said Jose Adalberto da Silva, vice-co-ordinator of the Roraima Indigenous Council.

Several villages, after first losing their crops, are now without water, said Da Silva, who travelled to Brasilia to ask central government for help.

Most of these indigenous people live in savannah or cleared land, the most affected by the fires. They generally plant yucca and maize as subsistence crops. This year they will have to buy this in from the markets.

The large landowners, who Barbosa considers mostly responsible for the burning, are mainly dedicated to livestock farming.

Roraima has around 260,000 inhabitants, and is one of the least populated states in Brazil. But in 1980 it only had 80,000 people, said Barbosa.

Only 20 years ago, the deforested area of the state measured only 100 square kilometers, but this figure had increased 53 times by 1996.

The accelerated occupation of land, deforestation and the “culture of burning” by rural farmers and large livestock breeders, created the conditions needed for the drought to turn disaster.

“There are no spontaneous fires in Amazonia,” said Barbosa, adding that atmospheric humidity in Roraima had been between 50 and 60 percent last month, which is “drought for a region which normally has between 70 and 80 percent humidity.”

However, this low level of humidity alone is not enough to cause spontaneous fire. The “burning” went out of control because the temperature and wind intensity also increased, he concluded.