2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires

2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires
Locations of fires, marked in orange, which were detected by MODIS from August 15 to August 22, 2019
Date(s)	January 2019 — ongoing
Location	Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay
Impacts
Deaths	2
Ignition
Cause	Slash-and-burn approach to deforest land for agriculture
Map
Map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions as delineated by the WWF in white and the Amazon drainage basin in blue.

The 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires are an unusually strong series of thousands of independent wildfires occurring in the Amazon rainforest in 2019 during the tropical dry season. The bulk of the wildfires have occurred within Brazil's Legal Amazon (Amazônia Legal or BLA), the portion of the forest within Brazil, but the neighboring countries of Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay have also lost large areas to wildfire, including more than 730,000 hectares (1.8 million acres) in Bolivia alone.

While such fires are annual occurrences during the dry season, the 2019 fires were brought to the attention of the scientific and international community in July and August 2019 after the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE) released statistics based on satellite observations documenting at least 75,336 wildfires burning in the country from January to August 23, 2019, with more than 40,000 within the Amazon rainforest, the highest number since data collection began in 2013. Satellite images from NASA corroborated INPE's findings that the Amazon forest has faced more intense wildfires in 2019 than in previous years.

INPE and other experts attributed the wildfires to slash-and-burn approaches to clear land for logging and farming to support Brazil's exports such as beef. The Brazilian and Bolivian governments had recently enacted policies allowing for increased clearing of rainforest areas for farming and logging. Since 2004, Brazil has taken some measures to reduce the acceleration of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, but the increased rate of deforestation in 2019 raised concerns from environmental experts due to the importance of the Amazon basin in climate change mitigation. Additionally, slash-and-burn techniques and subsequent wildfires may threaten the protected lands of the indigenous peoples in Brazil within the rainforest.

The wildfires drew criticism against the Brazilian government, particularly from environmental NGOs and France, which borders Brazil in its region of French Guiana, in the week leading up to the 45th G7 summit. These agencies assert that policies put in place by newly elected Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have weakened the protection for the rainforest. Bolsonaro and his ministers retorted that deforestation is needed to rebuild Brazil's economy, and that INPE's data has been falsified as part of a misinformation campaign against his administration. In early August, Bolsonaro fired the director of the INPE after the agency reported statistics that showed an increase in deforestation in Brazil. With increased international attention, including proposals to ban Brazilian exports and to end negotiations on the European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, the federal government has since committed more than 44,000 Brazilian troops, and an additional funding of R$38.5 million was reallocated by the Ministry of Economy to stop the fires.

As of August 20, there are fires burning in the rainforest in four Brazilian states: Amazonas, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, and Pará. The states of Amazonas and Acre declared states of emergency in response to the wildfires.

The Amazon forest as carbon dioxide sink

There are 670 million ha (1.7 billion acres; 6.7 million km²; 2.6 million sq mi) of Amazon rainforest, 60 percent lying within Brazil. From a global climate perspective, the Amazon has been the world's largest carbon dioxide sink, and estimated to capture up to 25% of global carbon dioxide generation into plants and other biomass. Without this sink, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations would increase and contribute towards higher global temperatures, thus making the viability of the Amazon a global concern. Further, when the forest is lost through fire, additional carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere, and could potentially contribute significantly to the total carbon dioxide content. The flora also generates significant quantities of water vapor through transpiration which travel large distances to other parts of South America and contribute to the precipitation in these areas. Due to ongoing global climate change, environmental scientists have raised concerns that the Amazon could reach a "tipping point" where it would irreversibly die out, the land becoming more savanna than forest, under certain climate change conditions which are exacerbated by anthropogenic activities.

Background of deforestation and fires in Brazil

Number of fires in the BLA between January 1 and August 26 by year, reported by INPE

Brazil's role in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has been a significant issue since the 1970s. Since the 1970s, Brazil has consumed approximately 12 percent of the forest, representing roughly 77.7 million ha (192 million acres)—an area larger than that of the US state of Texas. Most of the deforestation has been for natural resources for the logging industry, and land clearing for agricultural and mining use. According to the World Bank, some 80% of deforested land is used for cattle ranching. It is a common practice in the Amazon for farmers to set fires illegally using slash-and-burn to deforest land for ranching and farming during the dry season. This is partially driven by growing demand for beef exports from Brazil, particularly to China and Hong Kong; Brazil is one of the largest exporters of beef, accounting for more than 20% of global trade of the commodity. Brazil's cattle herd has increased by 56% over the last two decades. Ranchers wait until the dry season to slash-and-burn to give time for the cattle to graze. While slash-and-burn can be controlled, unskilled farmers may end up causing wildfires. According to Euronews, wildfires have increased as the agricultural sector has "pushed into the Amazon basin and spurred deforestation". In recent years, "land-grabbers" (grileiros) have been illegally cutting deep into the forest in "Brazil's indigenous territories and other protected forests throughout the Amazon". Past data from INPE has shown the number of fires with the BLA from January to August in any year to be routinely higher than 60,000 fires from 2002 to 2007 and as high as 90,000 in 2003.

Within international attention on the protection of the Amazon around the early 2000s, Brazil took a more proactive approach to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. In 2004, the Brazilian government had established the Federal Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAM), with the goal to reduce the rate of deforestation through land use regulation, environmental monitoring, and sustainable activities, promoted through partnerships at the federal and private level, and legal penalties for violations. Brazil also invested in more effective measures to fight fires, including fire-fighting airplanes in 2012. By 2014, USAID was teaching the indigenous people how to fight fires. As a result of enforcement of PPCDAM, the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped 83.5% of their 2004 rates by 2012. However, in 2014, Brazil fell into an economic crisis, and as part of that recovery, pushed heavily on its exports of beef and soy to help bolster its economy, which caused a reversal in the falling deforestation rates.

Agricultural fires in southern Pará, Brazil in August 2019.

To support PPCDAM, the INPE began developing systems to monitor the Amazon rainforest. One early effort was the Amazon Deforestation Satellite Monitoring Project (PRODES), which is a highly-detailed satellite imagery-based approach to calculate wildfires and deforestation losses on an annual basis. In 2015, INPE launched five complementary projects as part of the Terra Brasilis project to monitor deforestation closer to real-time. Among these include the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (DETER) satellite alert system, allowing them to capture incidents of wildfires in 15-day cycles. The daily data is published on the regularly updated Brazilian Environmental Institute government website, and later corroborated with the annual and more accurate PRODES data.

By December 2017, INEP had completed a modernization process and had expanded its system to analyze and share data on forest fires. It launched its new TerraMA2Q platform—software which adapts fire-monitoring data software including the "occurrence of irregular fires." Although the INPE was able to provide regional fire data since 1998. The modernization increased access. Agencies that monitor and fight fires include the Brazilian Federal Environment and Renewable Resources Agency (IBAMA), as well as state authorities. The INPE receives its images daily from 10 foreign satellites, including the Terra and Aqua satellites—part of the NASA's Earth Observation System (EOS).

Jair Bolsonaro was elected as President of Brazil in October 2018 and took office in January 2019, after which he and his ministries changed governmental policies to weaken protection of the rainforest and make it favorable for farmers to continue practices of slash-and-burn clearing, thus accelerating the deforestation from previous years. Land-grabbers had used Bolsonaro's election to extend their activities into cutting in the land of the previously isolated Apurinã people in Amazonas where the "world's largest standing tracts of unbroken rainforest" are found. Upon entering office, Bolsonaro cut US$23 million from Brazil's environmental enforcement agency, making it difficult for the agency to regulate deforestation efforts. Bolsonaro and his ministers had also segmented the environmental agency, placing part of its control under the agricultural ministry, which is led by the country's farming lobby, weakened protections on natural reserves and territories belonging to indigenous people, and encouraged businesses to file counter-land claims against regions managed by sustainable forestry practices.

Doug Morton chief of the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center explained what he called " slash and burn, 21st century", where"huge amounts of biomass" are removed by first pulling down the "towering" trees in the Amazon using "bulldozers and giant tractors with chains" followed by torching the tree trunks several months later. Morton said that the cleared land is then used either for cattle of for soybeans, which is one of Brazil's major exports. He called the process a "one-two punch". Scientists who are monitoring the Amazon were not surprised by the fires. In May, June, and July, they could see the uptick in deforestation to they anticipated that the fires would begin a few months later.

2019 Brazil wildfires

Despite the authority of PPCDAM, large numbers of wildfires have been recorded year-to-year by INPE since 2013, ranging from 35,000 to 70,000 annually for the period between January 1 and August 22. While it is possible for naturally-occurring wildfires to occur in the Amazon, the chances are far less likely to occur, compared to those in California or in Australia. Alberto Setzer of INPE estimated that 99% of the wildfires in the Amazon basin are a result of human actions, either on purpose or accidentally. Further, while there had been warmer temperatures due to global climate change in the years prior, it is unlikely that warm weather can initiate these fires, though warm weather is capable of exacerbating the fires once started as there will be drier biomass available for the fire to spread. Further evidence of the fires being caused by human activity is due to their clustering near roads and existing agricultural areas rather than remote parts of the forest, based on satellite imagery.

INPE alerted the Brazilian government to larger-than-normal growth in the number of fires through June to August 2019. The first four months of the year were wetter-than-average, discouraging slash-and-burn efforts. However, with the start of the dry season in May 2019, the number of wildfires jumped greatly. INPE reported a year-to-year increase of 88% in wildfire occurrences in June 2019. There was further increase in the rate of deforestation in July 2019, with the INPE estimating that more than 1,345 square kilometres (519 sq mi; 134,500 ha; 332,000 acres) of land had been deforested in the month and would be on track to surpass the area of Greater London by the end of the month.

The month of August 2019 saw a large growth in the number of observed wildfires according to INPE. By August 11, Amazonas had declared a state of emergency. The state of Acre entered into a environmental alert on August 16. In early August, local farmers in the Amazonian state of Pará placed an ad in the local newspaper calling for a queimada or "Day of Fire" on August 10, 2019, organizing large scale slash-and-burn operations knowing that there was little chance of interference from the government. Shortly after, there was an increase in the number of wildfires in the region.

INPE reported on August 20 that it had detected 39,194 fires in the Amazon rainforest since January. This represented a 77 percent increase in the number of fires from the same time period in 2018. However, the NASA-funded NGO Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) shows 2018 as an unusually low fire year compared to historic data from 2004–2005 which are years showing nearly double the number of counted fires. INPE had reported that at least 74,155 fires have been detected in all of Brazil, which represents a 84-percent increase from the same period in 2018. NASA originally reported in mid-August that MODIS satellites reported average numbers of fires in the region compared with data from the past 15 years; the numbers were above average for the year in the states of Amazonas and Rondônia, but below average for Mato Grosso and Pará. NASA later clarified that the data set they had evaluated previous was through August 16, 2019. By August 26, 2019, NASA included more recent MODIS imagery to confirm that the number of fires were higher than in previous years.

INPE documentation of wildfires by year and state in Brazil

	Number of wildfires detected by INPE from January 1 to August 26 in Brazil
Year State	2013	Diff%	2014	Diff%	2015	Diff%	2016	Diff%	2017	Diff%	2018	Diff%	2019
Acre	782	47%	1,150	43%	1,649	72%	2,846	–57%	1,204	3%	1,246	134%	2,918
Alagoas	128	–9%	116	69%	197	–60%	78	5%	82	–19%	66	10%	73
Amazonas	1,809	117%	3,927	13%	4,457	22%	5,475	4%	5,730	–38%	3,508	117%	7,625
Amapá	28	75%	49	4%	51	–13%	44	–43%	25	88%	47	–48%	24
Bahia	2,226	–26%	1,631	12%	1,836	42%	2,614	–37%	1,634	–21%	1,280	86%	2,383
Ceará	281	12%	316	14%	361	36%	493	–57%	209	84%	385	–15%	327
Federal District	60	130%	138	–57%	59	179%	165	–31%	113	–63%	41	65%	68
Espírito Santo	186	–35%	120	119%	263	40%	370	–76%	87	2%	89	157%	229
Goiás	1,406	56%	2,202	–24%	1,658	53%	2,540	–22%	1,963	–28%	1,398	27%	1,786
Maranhão	4,427	89%	8,375	–1%	8,229	–13%	7,135	–29%	5,000	–4%	4,760	17%	5,596
Minas Gerais	2,067	48%	3,067	–44%	1,710	83%	3,134	–30%	2,179	–24%	1,647	77%	2,919
Mato Grosso do Sul	1,421	–28%	1,017	112%	2,165	14%	2,486	3%	2,583	–54%	1,171	285%	4,510
Mato Grosso	8,396	40%	11,811	–21%	9,278	56%	14,496	–31%	9,872	–19%	7,915	95%	15,476
Pará	3,810	145%	9,347	–6%	8,776	0%	8,704	25%	10,919	–62%	4,068	164%	10,747
Paraíba	72	75%	126	–35%	81	–4%	77	–48%	40	100%	80	1%	81
Pernambuco	174	–2%	170	43%	244	–58%	102	22%	125	–18%	102	29%	132
Piauí	1,666	122%	3,708	–23%	2,840	–2%	2,765	–36%	1,749	104%	3,569	–21%	2,818
Paraná	1,361	–9%	1,227	0%	1,234	52%	1,877	–9%	1,698	–9%	1,531	18%	1,810
Rio de Janeiro	192	133%	448	–21%	354	7%	379	–33%	251	–42%	144	175%	396
Rio Grande do Norte	71	–7%	66	28%	85	–32%	57	21%	69	44%	100	–32%	68
Rondônia	817	266%	2,990	31%	3,934	10%	4,349	–16%	3,624	–37%	2,270	183%	6,441
Roraima	951	85%	1,759	–14%	1,499	136%	3,541	–82%	622	218%	1,982	132%	4,608
Rio Grande do Sul	890	69%	1,505	–40%	901	188%	2,601	–37%	1,619	–35%	1,039	95%	2,029
Santa Catarina	969	–32%	652	0%	646	147%	1,600	–29%	1,133	–22%	883	25%	1,107
Sergipe	155	–56%	68	122%	151	–53%	71	–4%	68	11%	76	–18%	62
São Paulo	1,385	81%	2,515	–54%	1,148	100%	2,302	–29%	1,613	37%	2,212	–26%	1,616
Tocantins	4,436	38%	6,132	–16%	5,130	55%	7,962	–31%	5,461	–25%	4,047	59%	6,436
Total	40,166	60%	64,632	–8%	58,936	32%	78,263	–23%	59,672	–23%	45,656	80%	82,285

INPE satellite imagery of a 70-by-70 mile area along the Purus River between Canutama and Lábrea in the state of Amazonas, taken on August 16, 2019, showing several plumes of smoke from wildfires, including areas that have been deforested

First media reports on Brazil wildfires

While INPE's data had been reported in international sources earlier, news of the wildfires were not a major news story until around August 20, 2019. On that day, the smoke plume from the fires in Rondônia and Amazonas caused the sky to darken at around 2 p.m. over São Paulo—which is almost 2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi) away from the Amazon basin on the eastern coast. NASA and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also published satellite imagery, in alignment with INPE's own, that showed smoke plumes from the wildfires were visible from space. INPE and NASA data, along with photographs of the ongoing fires and impacts, caught international attention and become a rising topic on social media, with several world leaders, celebrities, and athletes expressing their concerns. According to Vox, of all the concurrent wildfires elsewhere in the world, the wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil were the most "alarming".

Initial response of the Brazilian government

Official pronouncement of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

In the months prior to August 2019, Bolsonaro mocked international and environmental groups that felt his pro-business actions enabled deforestation. At one point in August 2019, Bolsonaro jokingly calling himself "Captain Chainsaw" while asserting that INPE's data was inaccurate. After INPE announced an 88% increase of wildfires in July 2019, Bolsonaro claimed "the numbers were fake" and fired Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão, the INPE director. Bolsonaro claimed Galvão was using the data to lead an "anti-Brazil campaign". Bolsonaro had claimed that the fires had been deliberately started by environmental NGOs, although he provided no evidence to back up the accusation. NGOs such as WWF Brasil, Greenpeace, and the Brazilian Institute for Environmental Protection countered Bolsonaro's claims.

Bolsonaro, on August 22, argued that Brazil did not have the resources to fight the fires, as the "Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?".

Historically, Brazil has been guarded about international intervention into the BLA, as the country sees the forest as a critical part of Brazil's economy. Bolsonaro and his government have continued to speak out against any international oversight of the situation. Bolsaonaro considered French President Emmanuel Macron's comments to have a "sensationalist tone" and accusing him of interfering in what he considers is a local problem. Of Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bolsonaro stated: "They still haven’t realized that Brazil is under new direction. That there’s now a president who is loyal to [the] Brazilian people, who says the Amazon is ours, who says bad Brazilians can’t release lying numbers and campaign against Brazil."

Bolsonaro's foreign minister Ernesto Araújo has also condemned the international criticism of Bolsonaro's reaction to the wildfires, calling it "savage and unfair" treatment towards Bolsonaro and Brazil. Araújo stated that: "President Bolsonaro’s government is rebuilding Brazil", and that foreign nations were using the "environmental crisis" as a weapon to stop this rebuilding. General Eduardo Villas Bôas, former commander of the Brazilian Army, considered the criticism of world leaders, like Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to be directly challenging "Brazilian sovereignty", and may need to be met with military response.

'National Force sends 30 firefighters to act against Amazon fires' - video published by the Bolsonaro government on August 25, 2019

With increased pressure from the international community, Bolsonaro appeared more willing to take proactive steps against the fires, saying by August 23, 2019 that his government would take a "zero tolerance" approach to environmental crimes. He engaged the Brazilian military to help fight the wildfires on August 24, which Joint Staff member Lt. Brig. Raul Botelho stated was to create a "positive perception" of the government's efforts. Among military support included 43,000 troops as well as four firefighting aircraft, and an allocated US$15.7 million for fire-fighting operations. Initial efforts were principally located in the state of Rondônia, but the Defense Ministry stated they plan to offer support for all seven states affected by the fires.

Rodrigo Maia, president of the Chamber of Deputies, announced that he would form a parliamentary committee to monitor the problem. In addition, he said that the Chamber will hold a general commission in the following days to assess the situation and propose solutions to the government.

After a report from Globo Rural reveal that a WhatsApp group of 70 people was involved with the Day of Fire, Jair Bolsonaro determined the opening of investigations by Federal Police.

Protests against Brazilian government policies

'Crowd march in defense of the Amazon and against the environmental policies of Bolsonaro' - video news report from Abya Yala TV in Bolivia.

In regards to the displacement of the indigenous people, Amnesty International has highlighted the change in protection of lands belonging to the indigenous people, and have called on other nations to pressure Brazil to restore these rights, as they are also essential to protecting the rainforest. Ivaneide Bandeira Cardoso, founder of Kanindé, a Porto Velho-based advocacy group for indigenous communities, said Bolsonaro is directly responsible for the escalation of forest fires throughout the Amazon this year. Cardoso said the wildfires are a “tragedy that affects all of humanity” since the Amazon plays an important role in the global ecosystem as a carbon sink to reduce the effects of climate change.

Thousands of Brazilian citizens held protests in several major cities from August 24, 2019 onward to challenge the government's reaction to the wildfires. Protesters around the world also held events at Brazilian embassies, including in London, Paris, Mexico City, and Geneva.

Protest in Porto Alegre on August 24, 2019

Initial reports on Brazil wildfire emissions

Images created by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder which depict carbon monoxide caused by fires in the Amazon region of Brazil from Aug. 8-22, 2019.

Active wildfires in the Amazon as of 22 August 2019

By August 22, NASA's AIRS published maps of increased carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide resulting from Brazil's wildfires. On the same day, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service reported a "discernible spike" in emissions of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide generated by the fires.

Impact on the indigenous peoples of Brazil

In addition to environmental harm, the slash-and-burn actions leading to the wildfires have threatened the approximately 306,000 indigenous peoples in Brazil who reside near or within the rainforest. Bolsanaro had spoken out against the need to respect the demarcation of lands for indigenous people established in the 1988 Constitution of Brazil. According to a CBC report on Brazil's wildfires, representatives of the indigenous people have stated that farmers, loggers, and miners, emboldened by the Brazilian government's policies, have forced these people out of their lands, sometimes through violent means, and equated their methods with genocide. Some of these tribes have vowed to fight back against those engaged in deforestation to protect their lands.

International responses to Brazil wildfires

Video news report from Todo Noticias based in Argentina, showing burned forest

International leaders and environmental NGOs have condemned President Bolsonaro for the extent of the wildfires within the Brazilian portion of the Amazon.

Several international governments and environmental groups raised concerns at Bolsonaro's stance on the rainforest and the lack of attempts by his government to slow the wildfires. Among the most vocal was Macron, given the proximity of French Guiana to Brazil. Macron called the Amazon wildfires an "international crisis," while claiming the rainforest produces "20% of the world's oxygen"—a statement disputed by academics. He said, "Our house is burning. Literally."

Discussion about the fires came into the final negotiations of the EU–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Mercosur, a trade bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. With the wildfires on-going, both Macron and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar have stated they will refuse to ratify the trade deal unless Brazil commits to protecting the environment.

Finance minister of Finland Mika Lintila suggested the idea of a EU ban on Brazilian beef imports until the country takes steps to stop the deforestation.

On August 22, the Bishops Conference for Latin America called the fires a "tragedy" and urged the UN, the international community, and governments of Amazonian countries, to "take serious measures to save the world's lungs." Colombian President Ivan Duque stated he wanted to lead a conservation pact with the other nations that share the Amazon rainforest with plans to present this to the UN General Assembly. Duque said, "We must understand the protection of our Mother Earth and our Amazon is a duty, a moral duty."

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres stated on August 23, that: "In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity."

US president Donald Trump offered to take the position of the Brazilian government to the meeting and said that the US government doesn't agree to discuss the issue without Brazil's presence. Trump himself was absent from the environmental portion of the summit held on August 26, 2019 that discussed the fires and climate change, though members of his advisory team were in attendance.

2019 Bolvia wildfires

GOESEast imagery of the southern edge of the Amazon Rainforest, plumes of smoke from agricultural fires burning in Bolivia and Brazil on Aug. 4, 2019

Bolivia has 7.7 percent of the Amazon rainforest within its borders, compared to Brazil with 58.4%. Seven other countries share the Amazon basin. The Amazon rainforest in Bolivia covers 19,402,388 hectares (47,944,345 acres) which represents 37.7 percent of Bolivia's forests and 17.7 percent of Bolivia's land mass. Bolivia's forest cover a total of 51,407,000 hectares (127,029,463 acres) and include the Chiquitano dry forests.

Bolivia lost 650 thousand hectares (1.6 million acres) of tropical forest within both the Amazon and the Chiquitano dry forests, most within the Santa Cruz province; like the Brazil fires, such fires do occur during the dry season, but the number of fires in 2019 were larger than in previous years. Throughout August, wildfires "have been spreading across four states." Jaguars, tapirs, and dozens of endangered species are threatened.

From August 18 to August 23, approximately 800,000 hectares (1,976,843 acres) hectares of the unique Chiquitano dry forests were destroyed. That’s more forest than is usually destroyed across the country in two years."

By August 24, the fires which had already destroyed 2,500,000 acres (1,011,714 ha) of forestland in the Santa Cruz , which is twice as much as on August 18, and were were closer to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. By August 25, "4,000 state employees and volunteers" were fighting the fires. By August 26, wildfires had destroyed over 1,800,000 acres (728,434 ha) of Bolivia's savannah and tropical forests, according to the Bolivian Information Agency (BIA).

At first President Evo Morales ignored the fires. Juan Quintana, the president’s chief of staff, had initially said they did not require "foreign firefighting aid". In the week of August 18, Morales "dispatched soldiers and three helicopters to fight fires in an area the size of Oregon". Since about August 21, Morales contracted the Boeing 747 Supertanker—the largest firefighting aircraft in the world—from the United States to fight the fires.

The government had been trying to determine the cause of the fires, with the Bolivian land management authority attributing 87% of the fires to illegal slash-and-burn by farmers. Multiple NGOs said that "deforestation jumped 200 percent since the government quadrupled the permitted deforestation area for small farmers in 2015. The land authority attributed the increase on lax environmental enforcement."

Political opponents of President Evo Morales allege his Supreme Decree 3973 in July 2019, meant to further beef production in the Amazon region, is a major cause of the Bolivian fires. The Santa Cruz province is a critical area for agriculture and cattle-rearing. On August 22, President Evo Morales hired a Boeing 747-400 firefighting plane (also known as Global SuperTanker) from the US to conduct firefighting missions over the Bolivian Amazon, after having previously refused to call on external help. Morales has stated that the governments of Spain, Chile, and Paraguay have reached out to him to provide help for fighting the fires.

Probioma's Miguel Crespo said that, "It may take up to 200 years for the forests in Bolivia to heal. I’ve never seen an environmental tragedy on this scale...The government has detonated an environmental disaster. In large part, this tragedy is the result of the state’s populism and development vision based on agribusiness."

Wildfires in other Amazonian countries

Burn scars in Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay captured by GOES-16 on August 22, 2019

Portions of the Amazon rainforest and surrounding areas within Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay have also reported wildfires and downstream effects from those in Brazil – but as in the case of Brazil, many of the fires are seasonal and happened independently of Brazil's fires.

Isolated fires were also reported in Madre de Dios in Peru but the regional authority reported these had no connection to those in Brazil; 128 forest fires were reported in Peru in August 2019.

Fire emergencies in Paraguay's Alto Paraguay district and the UNESCO protected Pantanal region have been issued by its federal government, and Paraguay President Mario Abdo Benítez has been in close contact with Bolivia's Morales to coordinate response efforts. Paraguay has lost 39,000 hectares (96,000 acres) in the wildfires of the Pantanal in the week 17–24 August 2019. An Universidad Nacional de Asunción representative lamented the disaster failed to attract as much media attention as the Amazon.

Biodiversity

Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London, described how while some forests have adapted to fire as "important part of a forest ecosystem's natural cycle", the Amazon rainforest—which is "made up of lowland, wetland forests"—is "not well-equipped to deal with fire". Other Amazon basin ecosystems, like the Cerrado region, with its "large savannah, and lots of plants there have thick, corky, fire resistant stems", is "fire adapted".

Mazeika Sullivan, associate professor at Ohio State University’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, explained that the fires could have a massive toll on wildlife in the short term as many animals in the Amazon are not adapted for extraordinary fires. Sloths, lizards, anteaters, and frogs may unfortunately perish in larger numbers than others due to their small size and lack of mobility. Endemic species, like Milton's titi and Mura’s saddleback tamarin, are believed to be beset by the fires. Aquatic species could also be affected due to the fires changing the water chemistry into a state unsuitable for life. Long-term effects could be more catastrophic. Parts of the Amazon rainforest's dense canopy were destroyed by the fires therefore exposing the lower levels of the ecosystem, which then alters the energy flow of the food chain.

G7 Summit and emergency aid

Attention to the wildfires increased in the week prior to the Group of Seven (G7) summit discussions on August 24–26 in Biarritz, France, led by President Macron. Macron stated his intent to open discussions related to the wildfires in the Brazilian part of the Amazon and Bolsonaro's response to them. Merkel has also backed Macron's statements and planned to make the issue a part of the G7 discussions; via a spokesperson, Merkel stated: "The extent of the fires in the Amazon area is shocking and threatening, not only for Brazil and the other affected countries, but also for the whole world." Macron further stated that possible international statute to protect the rainforest may be needed "if a sovereign state took concrete actions that clearly went against the interest of the planet".

During the summit, Macron and Chilean president Sebastián Piñera negotiated with the other nations to authorize US$22 million in emergency funding to Amazonian countries to help fight the fires. When the final negotiations were completed, Bolsonaro stated that he would refuse those funds for Brazil, claiming that Macron's interests were about protecting France's agricultural business in French Guiana from Brazil's competition. Bolsonaro also critiqued Macron by comparing the Amazon fires to the Notre-Dame de Paris fire earlier in 2019, suggesting Macron should take care of their internal fires before reaching out internationally.

2019 wildfires in the media

'Bolivia and Paraguay agree to work together to mitigate fire in the Amazon' - video news report from Abya Yala TV in Bolivia.

The media coverage had also broadly overshadowed the Amazon fires in Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay by the fires and international impact of those in the BLA. The Amazon wildfires also occurred shortly after major wildfires reported in Greenland and Siberia after a globally hotter-than-average June and July, drawing away coverage of these natural disasters.

Some of these photographs shared on social media were from past fire events in the Amazon or from fires elsewhere. Agence France-Presse and El Comercio published guides to help people "fact-check" on misleading photos.

Celebrity responses to Amazon wildfires

American actor Leonardo DiCaprio said his environmental organisation Earth Alliance is donating $5 million to local groups and indigenous communities to help protect the Amazon.

On August 26, 2019, Europe's richest man, Bernard Arnault, declared that his LVMH group will donate $11 million to aid in the fight against the Amazon rainforest wildfires.

See also

• 2019 Alberta wildfires
• 2019 California wildfires
• 2019 Siberia wildfires
• 2019 Washington wildfires
• 2019 United Kingdom wildfires
• 2019 wildfire season
• Deforestation in Brazil

External links

Media related to 2019 wildfires in Brazil at Wikimedia Commons

• "Updates on wildfires". INPE. Portal do Programa Queimadas do INPE. Retrieved August 22, 2019.