Sep 03, 2010
Congress Approves More Funds to Control Land-Clearing Fires in Brazil
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The Brazilian Congress approved R$ 20 million on Wednesday to combat an ever-increasing number of land-clearing fires burning across Brazil. This is in addition to the R$ 30 million that has already been spent in fire fighting during this dry season. Officials do not expect any improvement in the situation until the rains return sometime later in September.
During the dry season in Brazil it is a common practice to use fires to clear land, renovate pastures, and harvest sugarcane, but it has been extremely dry this year and the number of fires has been exceptionally high. During the month of August alone, satellites from the Brazilian National Space Institute (Inpe) detected 260,000 fires burning across the country.
Most of these fires have occurred in the cerrado regions of the country. According to the Environmental Minister, 72% of the fires were set by individuals on private property, 13% have occurred in indigenous regions, 8% in areas of agrarian reform, and 7% in areas of conservation in either state or national parks. The majority of the fires were set by cattle ranchers to eliminate the dry pasture grass and stimulate new green growth for their hungry cattle.
Three thousand federal fire fighters have been called upon to fight the fires that have moved into state parks, national parks, or other conservation areas. The Environment Minister pointed out that for the first time in over twenty years firefighting crews are now in place in national parks to combat fires.
Federal agricultural and environment officials stress that Brazilian farmers and ranchers need to educated about the environmental consequences of using fires to clear land. Even though the use of fire is the cheapest method of clearing land, the environmental consequences are far greater than other methods.