Battle to save Brazil's tropical wetlands from flames

(13 Sep 2020) Residents and volunteers in Brazil's remote Pantanal wetlands are racing to douse blazes that have consumed thousands of miles of sensitive wetlands this fire season, threatening the environment and species like jaguars and other animals.
Preliminary figures from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, based on satellite images, indicate that nearly 5,800 square miles (1.5 million hectares) have burned in the Pantanal region since the start of August — an expanse comparable to the area consumed by the historic blazes now afflicting California.
It's also well beyond the previous fire season record from 2005.
Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, whose satellites monitor the fires, said the number of Pantanal fires in the first 12 days of September was nearly triple the figure for the same period last year.
From January through August, the number of fires more than tripled, topping 10,000.
Long lines of fires swept across the dried out swamplands, encroaching on several national parks and blotting out the sun with dense smoke.
At the "Encontro Das Aguas" (Meeting of the Waters) Reserve, a popular tourist destination deep in the Pantanal region, volunteers and local residents were scrambling to find and rescue jaguars and other animals before they are overtaken by the flames, which have been exacerbated by the worst drought in 47 years, strong winds and temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade (104 fahrenheit).
Fernando Tortato has been working and living near the reserve since 2008, and says he has never seen the fires as bad as this year.
"16-17% of Pantanal has already been burned this year. It represents more than 2.3 million hectares. So, it is an immense area that has been burned and consumed by the fire. And we still have others 2, 3, or 4 weeks without rain. And this fire will continue because it is a forest fire out of control," he said, showing how he and others are trying to keep the fires from spreading into the reserve.
Flames and smoke have spread throughout the roughly 240,000 acres of the reserve, devastating the natural habitat of many animals, including jaguars.
Locals say they normally would see dozens of jaguars while touring the reserve "Encontro Das Aguas" on any given day, a major tourist draw and a sign of successful breeding and preservation effort that now is under threat.
Small hotel and tour operator Daniel Da Costa Moura criticized the government for not doing more to prevent the fires and douse the existing ones.
"We are not able to douse the flames. And all this political fight is destructive or something, but the animals don't understand that and they need help," Da Costa Moura says angrily, as he and other locals work to save threatened animals in the reserve.
Activists have been harshly critical of the Bolsonaro government for not doing enough to discourage fires in the Amazon and Pantanal, both environmentally sensitive regions where illegal logging, farming, ranching and gold mining is threatening the pristine wilderness.
The Pantanal holds thousands of plant and animal species, including 159 mammals, and it abounds with jaguars, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
During the rainy season, rivers overflow their banks and flood the land, making most of it accessible only by boat and plane.
In the dry season, wildlife enthusiasts flock to see the normally furtive jaguars lounging on riverbanks, along with macaws, caimans and capybaras.

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