Brazil State Mulls Suing Neighbors Over Fire
8/30/99
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Title: Brazil state mulls suing neighbors over fire
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 30, 1999
Byline: Joelle Diderich
(Reuters) - A Brazilian Amazon state wants to sue its neighbours for
damages after massive forest fires sent a thick cloud of smoke in its
direction, preventing planes from landing and making scores of
children ill.
The westernmost state of Acre, on Brazil's border with Peru and
Bolivia, is studying unprecedented legal action against the centre-
west states of Rondonia and Mato Grosso, a spokesman for the Acre
state government told Reuters on Monday.
``There is an intention but we still don't know exactly what will be
the method to obtain this compensation,'' said spokesman Anibal
Diniz. ``We want the national Environment Agency to hold accountable
the states which have not contained their fires.''
Brazil's central region is home to a rapidly expanding agricultural
frontier where farmers and small settlers traditionally set fires
between the months of July and October to clear their land in
preparation for planting.
Thick smoke from the fires is being carried westward and northwards by
winds drawn to the humidity of the Amazon rain forest, and has forced
the closure of the airport in the Acre state capital Rio Branco
several times, said Diniz.
``There is lots of smoke in the air; there are problems with flights
... and many children have been hospitalized with respiratory
problems,'' he added.
Officials at the Environment Agency (Ibama) said they had received a
request from Acre's federal attorney for information about the fires
and increased monitoring to pinpoint those responsible.
But they predicted it would be hard to sue for damages, since the
potential list of those accountable ranged from small farmers to the
government, which has slashed the budgets of its ministries this year
as part of a strict cost-cutting programme.
In addition, satellite data from Ibama show that the number of hot
spots -- areas where there is a very high probability that a fire is
burning -- has actually declined compared with the same period last
year.
The agency recorded 9,101 hot spots in Mato Grosso in the month to
Aug. 26, compared with 14,622 in August 1998 as a whole. In Rondonia,
it spotted 488 hot spots by Aug. 26, down from a total of 1,522 in
August of last year.
``We are seeing a lower number of hot spots this year than last year,
however the size of the area that has been burned is greater,''
explained Romildo Goncalves, coordinator of the Ibama's fire control
programme in Mato Grosso.
He said the state was on maximum alert and 837 firefighters were
combating the flames, although many fires had broken out in hard-to-
reach areas such as steep hillsides.
However, officials in neighbouring Rondonia said conditions there had
markedly improved from 1998, with periodical rains helping to keep
visibility moderate.
Ibama earlier this month launched a campaign to control fires and
illegal logging in the major deforestation zone in central Brazil, but
it only has six helicopters to monitor an area more than twice the
size of France.
The United States announced on Monday it was donating $600,000 to
Ibama for a one-year programme aimed at reducing the impact of the
annual fires on the Amazon.
The U.S. government will also lend Brazil a plane equipped with
NASA thermal sensors and digital cameras for the duration of
September.
Goncalves said that despite Ibama's efforts to educate farmers in Mato
Grosso about the dangers of fire, it was still the cheapest way to
clear land in an impoverished state dealing with demographic growth of
6 percent to 7.5 percent per year.
``It's a question of economic survival,'' he noted. ``Next year could
be even worse.''
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.