In view of the devastating forest fires in Brazil, the government wants to ban the burning of land during the dry season. For a period of 60 days, initially no more fires should be allowed, reported yesterday Brazilian media. However, exceptions should apply to indigenous communities that are self-sufficient. The decree should be published today in the Official Journal.
The whole Amazon is currently suffering from numerous forest fires. According to recent data from the Brazilian space agency INPE, the number of fires and slash-and-burn operations in the largest country in South America has risen by 77 percent year-on-year to more than 83,000 cases.
In the opinion of environmentalists, farmers usually set fire to deforested land in order to create new grazing land and farmland for soybean cultivation. In the current dry season, however, the flames also repeatedly resort to intact forest areas.
Expert: Fires favor future droughts
The thousands – sometimes laid – fires in the Amazon rainforest could favor future droughts and set a vicious circle in motion. Evaporation effects are an important driver of rainfall in the region. If the forest area decreases, precipitation decreases, which in turn favors drought and thus fires, according to Harald Vacik from the Institute of Silviculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU).
„When the situation tilts, it is difficult to say,“ said the forestry expert BOKU. In principle, some ecosystems, such as in the Amazon region, rely on fires for rejuvenation, these are part of the dynamics. It only becomes problematic when fires are too large and too frequent. „Then the forest can not recover,“ Vacik explained. The situation is also aggravated by climate change, which leads to longer and earlier dry periods and increases the number of potentially fire-causing lightning strikes.
