Fires in Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands are ripping through the biodiverse region, consuming an area the size of London in just the past 10 days, burning some animals alive and sending others fleeing.
The inferno in the world’s largest tropical wetlands is the latest environmental disaster facing Brazil, coming after a mysterious oil spill that is afflicting beaches in the northeast, and August fires that raged in the Amazon region.
The Associated Press (AP) newsagency report the Pantanal, which sprawls over parts of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, is a popular ecotourism destination considered one of the best places to see wildlife in South America.
During the wet season, rivers overflow their banks and make most of the region accessible only by boat and plane.
In the dry season, wildlife enthusiasts flock to see jaguars lounging on riverbanks, as well as macaws, giant river otters and caimans.
AP reports this year’s dry season has extended much longer than usual.
“Any spark in this area these days of high temperatures and very low humidity will start fires like those we’ve seen in recent days,” Júlio Cesar Sampaio, chief of WWF Brazil’s Cerrado Pantanal program, said.
“Only rain will decrease the risk of fire.”
Rescue efforts have so far found burned remains of caimans, iguanas and snakes.
SOS Pantanal, a local group, reported that hyacinth macaws, a vulnerable species, lost much of their primary food source as coconut and palm trees went up in flames, and the blue-and-yellow birds have been seen flying about aimlessly.
Between January and November, the area had 516 per cent more fires than the same period last year, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research.
While there have been more fires in the Amazon, they have been dispersed across an area roughly half the size of the United States.
Fires in the Pantanal this time of year are abnormal because heavy rains usually start in October.
With little precipitation, high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds, fires were spreading fast through the low vegetation, authorities said.
The Mato Grosso do Sul State Government said in a press release that the fires were “of a proportion never-before registered” and that the causes were both the dry conditions and “criminal activity”.
Firefighters said the cause was likely local people setting fires to clear land of vegetation, a practice also blamed for many of the Amazon fires.
Such burning is particularly common among cattle ranchers, who use fire rather than costly equipment to prepare pastures.
Fires in the Pantanal this year have been overshadowed by the months-long period of blazes seen in the Amazon region.
The Governor of Mato Grosso do Sul declared a state of emergency after more than10,000 square kilometres burned in the previous five weeks in the state’s portion of the Amazon.
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