Landowners often use fires to clear up space for pastures. Photo: Paralaxis/Shutterstock
Amid the catastrophe of the coronavirus pandemic — which has claimed over 200,000 lives in Brazil — the country suffered from another tragedy in 2020: a huge wave of fire outbreaks that consumed large parts of two of Brazil’s main biomes, the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal wetlands.
The situation of calamity was documented throughout the year, with devastating images of decimated vegetation and animals consumed by flames. When 2020’s statistics were finally tabulated, the year saw the highest number of fire outbreaks in a decade.
The number of fires in Brazil rose 12.73 percent last year, in comparison to 2019, according to data from the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe). The country recorded a total of 222,798 outbreaks over 2020.
The increase was larger still in the Pantanal, with the number of fire outbreaks more than doubling 2019 figures, making it the worst year for the biome since records began. Estimations made during 2020 suggest that at least 23 percent of the wetlands were destroyed.
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