Brazil Begins to Count Toll of Amazon Fires
4/2/98
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Title: Brazil Begins to Count Toll of Amazon Fires
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 4/2/98
Byline: William Schomberg
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Helped by heavy rain, firefighters Thursday worked
to extinguish the last flames in the northern Amazon as Brazilian environmental
officials began assessing the impact of recent blazes and sought to deter
farmers from setting new fires.
``The situation is under control but our operation remains in place,'' said
army major Jorge Fraxe, a spokesman for Brazil's biggest-ever firefighting
operation of 1,700 men.
He said firemen and soldiers were tackling fires in two districts in
northern Roraima state on the border with Venezuela. Those were the only areas
deprived the rain which put out blazes in the savannah and jungle on Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Officials from the government's Environment Institute (IBAMA) flew over
the region to begin assessing the damage caused by the Amazon's worst fires on
record.
``Clearly, a bigger area has burned than in previous years. But the numbers
some people have been coming up with are grotesquely exaggerated,'' said IBAMA
president Eduardo Martins.
Government estimates on the total area burned have varied from 2,300 square
miles to 11,500 square miles, roughly the size of Belgium.
Most of the area is savannah and converted farmland, which burn each dry
season. But this year's fires also damaged rain forest normally too humid to
burn.
Martins said a plane equipped with infra-red sensory detectors would begin
flying over the region soon and an accurate estimate of the damage would be
available in 30 to 45 days.
Satellites would not be able to see through the rain clouds currently
gathered over Roraima, he said.
IBAMA officials were also preparing to carry out detailed studies of the fire's
impact on the region's wildlife, using snakes, birds and possibly rodent
species to gauge the losses.
Another group of scientists will drill into sediment in local lakes to look for
clues about possible similar big fires in the past. Carbon levels found in the
mud might give pointers to how quickly the region would recover, Martins said.
While IBAMA began its research, international environment group Friends
of the Earth calculated that the Roraima fires released 125 million metric tons
of carbon into the atmosphere.
In a statement, the group said that volume was equivalent to all the carbon
emissions released in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city, over 10 years.
``We're waiting for more complete and reliable data on the affected area to
have a more definitive estimate,'' said Roberto Smeraldi, Friends of the
Earth's Brazil representative. ``But the scale is enough to show the severity
of this phenomenon.''
He also expressed concern about the risk of fires in the bulk of the Amazon
south of Roraima where the sub-equatorial dry season is due to begin in May.
Officials are preparing a list of areas where logging may have reduced the rain
forest's natural humidity and increased its vulnerability to fire. But a
planned rapid-deployment forest fire brigade will take two years to set up,
they say.
IBAMA staff in Roraima were deployed Thursday to nine agricultural areas to
prevent poor subsistence farmers from setting new fires to clear their land.
The burning of farmland is believed to have started this year's fires, which
quickly spread amid a harsh drought and strong winds linked to the El Nino
weather phenomenon.
Ademir Passarinho, IBAMA's superintendent in Roraima, said many farmers whose
land did not burn in the fires had chopped down trees and small bushes and
piled them up on their meager fields ready for a lighted match.
``There will be more fires in the fields. It's the only farming technique these
people know,'' Passarinho said. ``Until someone comes up with tractors and
fertilizers for them, they will keep on using fire.''
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