Major Fire Tragedy in Roraima, Brazil
3/26/98
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE
The fires ravaging Brazil's forests are of an unprecedented magnitude,
as various estimates in the articles below put the area burnt at 4, 16
and 25 percent of Roraima. A line of fire stretching 250 miles (400
km) was advancing in the north-east of the state. This is
approximately 30,000 square kilometers of savannah and 6,500 of
forests or deforested area in a state covering 230,000 square
kilometers. There has been no rain in the area in 8 months, which is
extremely atypical. Following are three articles concerning the
situation. The first a good overview of the situation, the second
highlights slash and burn agriculture and the under reported role of
selective logging in making conditions conducive to conflagrations of
this intensity, and the final discusses international assistance
efforts. The rainforests of the world are going up in flames because
of our fundamental misunderstanding of their nature.
g.b.
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ITEM #1
Title: BRAZIL: Fire Devours Savannah and Amazon Forests
Source: InterPress Third World News Agency via econet
Status: Copyright 1998, contact source to reprint
Date: March 16, 1998
Byline: Maria Osava
/** ips.english: 510.0 **/
** Topic: ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Fire Devours Savannah and Amazon Forests
**
** Written 2:43 PM Mar 19, 1998 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.english **
Copyright 1998 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 16-Mar-98 ***
Title: ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Fire Devours Savannah and Amazon Forests
by Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 16 (IPS) - The El Nino climatic phenomenon added
drought, high temperature and strong winds to the ''burning season''
in Amazonia, fanning fires which destroyed the State of Roraima in the
far north of Brazil.
This was the explanation given by Reinaldo Imbrizio from the Amazon
Research Institute (INPA) of the fire in Roraima, striking small
farmers and indigenous people on the frontier with Venezuela and
Guyana particularly hard.
The burning of grasslands, old crops and forests is normal procedure
in Roraima and other areas of Brazil due to ''the low technological
level'' of the agricultural and livestock activity. But this year, the
fire got completely out of control aided by the reigning climatic
conditions, he said.
Barbosa calculated 16.1 percent of the territory of Roraima had been
burnt by late Saturday, that is, 30,000 kilometers of savannah and
6,500 of forests or deforested area in a state covering 230,000 square
kilometers.
Meanwhile, state authorities said the fires had destroyed 25 percent
of the total area. There are 3,000 fires out of control throughout the
state, said Pedro Estevam, director of the Roraima government
Agriculture and Livestock Production department.
The fire, which has already been burning for two months, has killed
around 20,000 head of cattle - five percent of local stocks - and has
destroyed practically all crops, except for the irrigated rice, said
Estevam.
''Not a drop of rain has fallen for eight months, which is not
typical,'' substantially affecting the subsistence agriculture of the
indigenous people and around 50,000 small rural farmers, generally
migrants from other areas of Brazil.
Efforts to control the flames now have support from central
government, including the army. Expert fire-fighters flew into Roraima
from Brasilia, to direct operations, although little could really be
done given the extent of the catastrophe.
Barbosa said the fire has now passed its peak - which lasted from late
February until the present. ''Most of the biomass which can burn has
done so, and now there are only the residual fires,'' he said.
Weather forecasts do not include heavy rains until the end of April,
although small ''hopeful showers'' as the local population call them,
could occur earlier, said the researcher.
The fires, of an unprecedented extension and strength for Roraima,
invaded the forests of the Yanomami indian reserve. The National
Indian Foundation, official aid body for the indigenous population,
say 15 square kilometers have been burnt within this area.
But there are other indigenous groups in the state, numbering a total
of 37,000, said Jose Adalberto da Silva, vice-co-ordinator of the
Roraima Indigenous Council.
Several villages, after first losing their crops, are now without
water, said Da Silva, who travelled to Brasilia to ask central
government for help.
Most of these indigenous people live in savannah or cleared land, the
most affected by the fires. They generally plant yucca and maize as
subsistence crops. This year they will have to buy this in from the
markets.
The large landowners, who Barbosa considers mostly responsible for the
burning, are mainly dedicated to livestock farming.
Roraima has around 260,000 inhabitants, and is one of the least
populated states in Brazil. But in 1980 it only had 80,000 people,
said Barbosa.
Only 20 years ago, the deforested area of the state measured only 100
square kilometers, but this figure had increased 53 times by 1996.
The accelerated occupation of land, deforestation and the ''culture of
burning'' by rural farmers and large livestock breeders, created the
conditions needed for the drought to turn disaster.
''There are no spontaneous fires in Amazonia,'' said Barbosa, adding
that atmospheric humidity in Roraima had been between 50 and 60
percent last month, which is ''drought for a region which normally has
between 70 and 80 percent humidity.''
However, this low level of humidity alone is not enough to cause
spontaneous fire. The ''burning'' went out of control because the
temperature and wind intensity also increased, he concluded.
ITEM #2
Title: Scientists Say Amazon Fires May be Face of Things to Come
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1998, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: March 22, 1998
Byline: MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer
BOA VISTA, Brazil (March 22, 1998 6:37 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net)
-- Unless changes are made in rain forest development, more fires like
those that have consumed 1.5 million acres of pasture, savanna and
virgin Amazon forest are likely, scientists say.
Carbon-dating has indicated at least four huge burn-offs in the past
2,000 years -- the last about 400 years ago. But this year's fires in
the remote northern state of Roraima, fueled by the severest drought
in 30 years, are the worst in recent history.
According to Daniel Nepstad, a forest ecologist with the Woods Hole
Research Center in Massachusetts, Roraima can be seen as a microcosm
for the whole Amazon because it has all types of vegetation endemic to
the region contained in a relatively small area.
"It's very dry now and depending on the frequency and the amount of
rains this year, 1998 could be the fieriest year ever," Nepstad warns.
While a good deal of blame for fires that have raged for three months
has been placed on the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has brought
only 1/25th of an inch of rain all year, there are other contributors.
"People want to treat this like a nature disaster, like an earthquake
or tidal wave, where nothing can be done. But it's not just El Nino,
there are economic and social factors that also have an impact," said
Philip Fearnside, a scientist at the National Institute for Amazon
Research in the jungle city of Manaus.
Settlers streaming into the region and increased logging are making
the rain forest increasingly vulnerable to burning.
To plant on the Amazon's weak soil, settlers must cut down more forest
each year and then burn it to create a layer of ash, which fertilizes
the soil. During dry years, the burning often gets out of control, but
even in wet years, open pasture leaves the forest exposed. Scientists
estimate that 2,000 square miles of rain forest are lost every year to
slash-and-burn agriculture.
The problem is apparent in the Apiau region, 70 miles southwest of Boa
Vista, the state capital, where some of the worst burning has taken
place.
Once a dense swath of forest, poor farmers settled by the government
in the mid-1980s cut out large pastures. Fires set to clear land
quickly spread into the forest's underbrush.
Selective logging, in which only a few of the most valuable trees are
logged, also punches holes in the forest canopy. Heat and light stream
through, robbing the forest of its moisture. And when the selected
trees are felled, they topple dozens of smaller ones that are left
behind and provide more fuel for future fires.
According to the National Space Research Institute, which is
responsible for monitoring Amazon deforestation, about 12 percent of
the 2 million-square-mile Amazon has been cut down.
Nepstad says there has been so much selective logging -- something not
visible from satellite photos -- in the Amazon that official
deforestation figures are far too low.
Selective logging and clearing the forest for farmland sets the stage
for ever more frequent and fierce fires in forests that until recently
were thought to be nearly fire proof.
"I think this will be a lesson. They used to say tropical rain forest
doesn't burn. Now, they can see it does," said Ademir dos Santos, head
of Brazil's Environmental Protection Agency in Roraima state. "If we
don't move away from this archaic method (slash-and-burn agriculture),
we are risking other tragedies."
Dos Santos says increased environmental awareness is the only way to
end the fires. Whether that approach can work in a region where the
farmers and the soil are poor and fertilizer is expensive isn't
certain.
"We have to look at alternative agriculture, such as growing fruit
trees, rubber and Brazil nuts instead of crops," said Robert
Buschbacher, director of conservation at the World Wildlife Fund
Brazil.
Buschbacher also says agriculture may not be the best way to develop
the Amazon. The answer, he suggests, may lie in sustainable logging --
a practice something like crop rotation that is considered less
devastating to the environment because areas are allowed years to
recover.
The World Wildlife Fund has been experimenting with sustainable
logging in conjunction with the Brazilian government, and Buschbacher
says the results have been encouraging.
The practice is controversial, with critics concerned about any
depletion of the forest's biodiversity. It also would require long-
term planning of a sort that has been rare in the region.
ITEM #3
Title: Brazil accepts emergency World Bank funds for Amazon
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1998, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: March 26, 1998
Byline: Joelle Diderich
BRASILIA, March 26 (Reuters) - Brazil has accepted a $5 million rescue
package from the World Bank to combat fires ravaging the Amazon
rainforest and was considering other international offers of help, an
official said Thursday.
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso formed a commission to
study offers of help from the United Nations and several countries,
presidential spokesman Sergio Amaral said.
The commission will include government ministers, representatives of
the government's environmental agency IBAMA and Foreign Ministry
officials who will have the last say on accepting any offers of help.
The move marks a shift in attitude on the part of the Brazilian
government, which has traditionally been resistant to foreign
intervention in the Amazon.
``There is no resistance to international help as long as it conforms
to Brazilian needs,'' Amaral told reporters.
Fires set by subsistence farmers have burned out of control since
January in savannah near Brazil's border with Venezuela. The flames
are now pressing into jungle that is dry from a drought blamed on the
El Nino weather phenomenon.
Amaral said the fires had burned between four percent and six percent
of the total territory of Roraima, a state roughly the size of
Britain. This represents between 3,500 square miles (9,000 square km)
and 5,200 square miles (13,500 square km).
A line of fire stretching 250 miles (400 km) was advancing in the
north-east of the state and a quarter of Roraima was at risk from the
blazes, he said.
The United Nations' Department of Humanitarian Affairs said Wednesday
it was ready to send in a team of firefighting specialists to help
Brazil assess the damage and lay the groundwork for mobilizing
international assistance.
``All offers of help are welcome as long as they are adapted to needs
and are of a humanitarian nature,'' said Amaral, adding that IBAMA was
studying the U.N. proposal.
Brazil, despite its huge Amazon territory, lacks the technology needed
to tackle major fires in tropical forests.
Russia is ready to send in two water-carrying airplanes to help put
out the flames, but technical problems were holding up the proposal,
he said.
Brazil is sending another 500 men to help in its biggest ever
firefighting effort, bringing the total number of men combating the
blazes up to around 1,500, including Argentine and Venezuelan
firefighters who arrived last week.
One of their priorities will be to prevent the flames from eating
further into the jungle reservation of the primitive Yanomami Indians,
whose livelihood is threatened by the flames which have already burnt
swathes of the reservation.
Cardoso was monitoring the situation and may fly out to Roraima to
assess the region's needs, the spokesman said.
Reports Thursday indicated the fires were spreading across the
grasslands and forests of neighboring Guyana.
Amaral did not specify which other countries had offered to help, but
his comments indicated Brazil was cautiously accepting the need for
external assistance. For decades, Brazil's armed forces have treated
the Amazon as a national security issue. REUTERS