***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Rains
Quench Amazon Fires
***********************************************
Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
4/11/98
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
Heavy
rains have extinguished the Brazilian fires, described by the
United
Nations as an "environmental disaster without precedent on this
planet,"
early last week. Such blazes are
becoming much more common
worldwide--including
Mexico, Philippines, Thailand and of course
Indonesia--as
overly intensive forestry and agricultural activities
fragment,
and reduce the ecological condition, of remaining forests.
Following
is a news account regarding the extinguishing of the fires,
and an
older background piece that reemphasizes their incredible
nature.
g.b.
*******************************
RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
Title: Rains Quench Amazon Fires
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1998, contact source to reprint
Date: April 1, 1998
BRASILIA,
Brazil (AP) -- Long-awaited rains in Brazil's drought-
stricken
state of Roraima have put out most of the wildfires that have
blackened
Amazon forest and pastureland over the last three months.
The
first heavy rains in six months started Tuesday, just a day after
two
Caiapo Indian shamans performed a rain-making ritual at the
Yanomami
reservation, home to one of the world's last Stone Age
tribes.
It was
one of several Indian reservations threatened by the blazes,
which
charred 13,000 square miles -- 15 percent of the state.
``If
it's a coincidence or not, I don't know, but it certainly seemed
to have
done the trick,'' said Alan Suassuna, spokesman for the
Federal
Indian Bureau in Boa Vista, 1,550 miles northwest of the
capital,
Brasilia.
Suassuna
estimated that the rains had extinguished 80 percent to 90
percent
of the flames.
He said
authorities would have a more accurate assessment after
reports
from the army, which was to inspect the area by air today.
Carlos
Pereira Monteiro, head of a United Nations' team of
firefighting
experts that arrived Monday, called the fires ``a
environmental
disaster without precedent on this planet.''
By
Tuesday, some 1,100 firefighters -- from Venezuela and Argentina as
well as
Brazil -- were battling the blazes.
ITEM #2
Title: THE WORST FIRE IN THE HISTORY OF THE
AMAZON: A DISASTER FOR
THE YANOMAMI
Source: CCPY
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to
source.
Date: March 1998
The
biggest fire in the history of the Amazon has turned millions of
acres
in Roraima, Brazil's most Northernmost state, into a blackened
waste
littered with the corpses of dead wildlife and cattle. After
sweeping
across the savannah in the north of the state, the fires now
threaten
the Yanomami reserve in the west. The damage to the region's
biodiversity
is incalculable. For much of the population of Roraima it
is a
disaster: crops, livestock, and homes burnt, food and water hard
to get,
respiratory diseases, smoke-filled air and unbearable heat.
The
Yanomami, seeing for the first time the sun and the mountain tops
hidden
by huge clouds of smoke as the fires creep nearer, fear it is
the
beginning of the end of the world.
FIRES
REACH THE YANOMAMI AREA
On 24th
March Carlo Zacquini of the CCPY flew over the Yanomami
reserve
to see the extent of the damage: he reported that for over an
hour
the plane followed a line of fire advancing from east to west,
maybe
thirty kilometres of it inside the Yanomami reserve towards
Catrimani.
He saw also 15 firespots, some inside the reserve. He
described
the Funai post at Apiau surrounded by burnt vegetation and
fire
advancing along one side of the Mucajai river towards another
Funai
post. There are Indian villages on the
other side of the river.
The
plane flew in and out of huge smoke clouds. The pall of smoke
hanging
over the area has made it practically impossible for medical
teams
to reach villages where there have been outbreaks of malaria.
Over
600 indians are now camped around the Toototobi post in search of
food,
water and medical assistance. The Yanomami foresee hungry times
ahead
because of the huge death toll of animals, birds, fish. One said
"So
many animals dying - what will we eat?"
THE
CAUSES
No rain
has fallen in Roraima since August 1997. The drought, which
has
affected all of the Amazon region, is being blamed on the climate
changes
provoked by El Nino. Five months of drought meant that by
January
the rivers had been reduced to unnavegable streams, the
grasslands
were as dry as tinderboxes and the rainforest had lost much
of its
humidity. But January is the month that farmers clear
undergrowth
for planting using the traditional slash and burn method.
Because
they have no other means of clearing the land, they went ahead
as
usual. The fires got out of hand and spread over large areas of
savannah,
burning cattle ranches and the pastures, gardens and
orchards
of many Macuxi villages. On 22nd January Roraima governor
Neudo
Campos declared a state of public calamity because of the
drought
and appealed for federal funds to sink wells and dig small
reservoirs.
His appeal was ignored, apparently because of the inflated
costs
quoted. Throughout February the governor continued to appeal for
federal
funds without response. On 1st February IBAMA, the federal
government
environment agency banned farm fires: but many farmers,
unaware
of the dangers or ignorant of the ban, continued to light
fires
to clear their land. The local IBAMA Superintendent said it was
impossible
to supervise 17,000 farms.
FIGHTING
THE FIRES
The
Roraima government had no forest fire expertise or equipment to
draw
on. The local fire brigade was trained for dealing only with
urban
situations. Roraima authorities declared themselves impotent to
stop
the fires spreading. Civil defence head Kleber Cerquinho said "We
have
lost control of the situation." In mid-March Governor Neudo
Campos
asked for funds to hire 22 specially equipped fire-fighting
helicopters
from a Venezuelan company, but this was turned down by
federal
authorities as unnecessary. On March 19th the secretary for
Regional
Policies, Fernando Catao went to Boa Vista to discuss federal
aid to
the state government but admitted that only the rains could
extinguish
the fires. Of the R$12 million requested by the governor,
R$2
million was promised. Several hundred volunteer firemen from other
Brazilian
states and from Argentina and Venezuela began arriving in
Roraima
to help the local force of 150 firefighters. Argentina also
supplied
4 helicopters equipped with monsoon buckets. 19th March The
Army's
1st Jungle Battalion took over coordination of the fire
fighting
efforts, providing communications between the groups of
firemen.
Soldiers were sent to cut trails through the forest and
protect
firemen from wild animals fleeing the flames. The priority of
the
firefighters was to protect properties threatened by the flames in
areas
like Apiau. On March 20th seven new firepoints appeared in the
south,
along the BR-174 highway. On March 24th Neudo Campos appealed
for
more help saying "The situation is still not under control. Please
help
us. We need planes to spray water and more men. We've never faced
a fire
like this before. It's an ecological
disaster." On March 25th
the
Roraima government appealed to the federal government to hire
Russian
planes equipped with water tanks. Another 500 firemen from
other
regions of Brazil were expected in Roraima.
FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT REACTION
Although
federal agencies like IBAMA, FNS and FUNAI have local offices
in
Roraima, the federal government was slow to realise the extent of
the
catastrophe. Only when the Amazon fires became headline news in
the
international press did the government take action. Friends of the
Earth
accused the government of failing to reply to various offers of
assistance
from the Disaster Relief Branch of the UN Environment
Programme
(UNEP). UNEP's offer was to send a small team of specialists
to
Roraima to elaborate an emergency plan, which would include the use
of the
most advanced technologies as used in Indonesia. If accepted by
the
Brazilian government, the plan could be put into action in 3 or 4
days.
On March 24th, four months after UNDEP's first offer of help to
fight
large-scale fires, the government announced that it had
accepted.
Immediately military leaders in the Amazon criticised the
decision,
General Luis Gonzaga Lessa, Military Commander of the Amazon
vetoed
it saying that international aid was unwelcome, because it
meant
foreign interference in the Amazon. General Luiz Edmundo
Carvalho,
commander of the lst Jungle Brigade said overseas aid was
unnecessary,
because the Amazon Military Command could offer all the
help
needed. This split between the military and the government led
President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso to call a special meeting of the
Foreign
Affairs and National Defence Council to discuss the situation
in
Roraima on March 26th. At the meeting it was decided to accept a
US$5
million World Bank loan for fighting the fire and set up a task
force
under General Carvalho to coordinate all activities in Roraima.
In
Brasilia another committee headed by the National Secretary for
Regional
Policies, Fernando Catao will analyse the many international
offers
of aid which have apparently already been received by the
Brazilian
government, but remained unanswered. According to a
newspaper
report, it was also decided to begin a campaign to change
the
image held by world public opinion that Brazil is not concerned
about
the fate of the Amazon.
ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSEQUENCES
Official
estimates of how much of Roraima's 221 million hectares have
been
burnt vary. Governor Neudo Campos said 25 percent, the federal
government
claimed it was only 3 percent. INPA ((National Amazon
Research
Institute) reckoned 21 percent, INPE (the Space Research
agency)
put it at 12 to 16 percent. Reinaldo Imbrozio Barbosa, INPA
researcher
in Boa Vista said the fires will affect the biodiversity
and
environmental equilibrium of the Northern Amazon contributing to
an
increase in greenhouse gases like carbon and methane in the
atmosphere.
He believes it will take at least 100 years for the
rainforest
to recover. The drying out of the forest will make it more
susceptible
to fires in the future, especially as the forecast for
1998 is
of below average rainfall in the Amazon. In Roraima itself
there
has been a huge toll of wildlife, as animals and birds fleeing
the
fire die of hunger and thirst. Monkeys, deer, wild boar,
anteaters,
sloths, tortoises are among the species affected. Hunters
are
said to be taking advantage of the animals despair, shooting the
ones
that crowd around the few waterholes they find. The river Branco,
normally
used by barges, has been reduced from a depth of 8 metres to
shallow
pools only 40 cm deep, interspersed with sandbanks, and can be
crossed
on foot: the river Mucajai is down to
half its normal width.
Two of
the state's ecological reserves have been hit by the fires.
Fires
have leapt the river Uraricoera into Maraca, which contains a
research
centre and examples of every species in the state. Macuxi
villages
in the savannah are surrounded by acres of ashes and dead
trees
FOOD
PRODUCTION
Up to
12,000 out of 400,000 cattle have died. 300/400 dying a day from
hunger
and thirst. Many of the state's small farmers have lost
everything:
food production has been wiped out in the areas affected
by
fire. Eighty percent of the savannah much of which had been turned
into
rice and soybean plantations and cattle pastures, has been
devastated
by fires. The indigenous populations numbering 22,000 have
lost
cultivated areas and sustainable agriculture projects and face
hunger
and thirst.
THE
HEALTH SITUATION
The
population of Roraima is suffering from the effects of the
prolonged
drought, fires and smoke. In the capital, the numbers
needing
treatment at the children's hospital have doubled from 100 to
200 a
day, most of them with respiratory problems. On 16th March an
emergency
meeting of medical professionals of NISI -RR
(Interinstitutional
Nucleus on Indigenous Health in Roraima)
concluded
that the fires had produced an environmental and
epidemiological
catastrophe for the indian populations. In the
Yanomami
area the NISI-RR reported that subsistence crops like manioc,
banana
and sugarcane were badly affected by the long drought. Entire
communities
whose streams and rivers had dried up, have had to travel
long
distances in search of water while others survive on water from
holes
dug in the earth. Where their gardens have been burnt, the
Yanomami
are left without food to supplement game and fish now scarce
because
of the drought and fire. Malaria has increased significantly,
and
seriously ill patients cannot be removed to hospital because of
the
difficult flying conditions. Malnutrition, epidemics of
respiratory
diseases and an increase in malaria cases are now
expected.
They concluded that weakened communities will find it more
difficult
to get food from the forest and the ecological disaster
could
produce plagues of pests.
THE
YANOMAMI VIEW
For the
Yanomami the explanation for the environmental disaster that
is
engulfing them involves the goldminers who have invaded their lands
to seek
gold. Legends say that if the minerals that strengthen the
earth
and enrich the soil are removed, poisonous smoke will cover the
earth.
The smoke that now covers the forest brings sickness: "In the
forest,
in the mountains, there is sickness. If it burns, we will die"
said
one leader. A Yanomami shaman, Paulinho foresaw the fires in a
dream:
he saw the sky catch fire and the spirits die. Next day when
smoke
covered the sky, his community fled in fear.
CONCLUSIONS
Brazil
was entirely unprepared for such a disaster. Everyone, both
government,
NGOs and indigenous organisations, reacted too slowly. The
federal
government has no clear mechanism for responding to a disaster
situation:
different agencies announced contradictory measures and
conclusions.
The disaster revealed the total lack of any preparation
for
forest firefighting, the absence of any specialised personnel or
equipment
anywhere in the Brazilian Amazon. Although the Army and the
Air
Force have many bases, planes, helicopters and battalions in
Roraima,
they have no firefighting equipment or trained personnel, and
were
just as slow to react as the civilians. Climate forecasts suggest
less
rainfall, more drought and therefore more fires in the Amazon
region
this year. This is not one off situation, but a pattern that
will be
continued. Therefore not only emergency help is needed, but
long
term solutions.
IMMEDIATE
NEEDS OF THE YANOMAMI
1. Food
aid for the Yanomami to cover the period until they can be
self
supporting again (one year is the estimate). 2. Funds for the
purchase
of the anti-malarial drug meflaquine and other necessary
drugs.
3. Funds for extra flying time needed to take assistance to the
sick in
the villages. 4. Funds for digging a well at the Balawau
health
post
CCPY
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The
Brazilian government should immediately accept the aid, in the
form of
know how, equipment and funds, being offered by other
countries
and the UN. 2. The G7 Tropical Forests Pilot Programme
should
condition further disbursements to the establishment by Brazil
of a
forest firefighting plan including the training of personnel,
including
indigenous personnel, and the acquisition of special
equipment.
3. A conference of government agencies, environmental and
indigenous
organisations and farmers should be convened to discuss a
new
model of sustainable development in the Amazon region, that would
substitute
the use of fire by other technologies. 4. We would like to
see the
UK government's previous offer of technology for the recovery
of
degraded areas revived.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
This
document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-
commercial
use only. Recipients should seek
permission from the
source
for reprinting. All efforts are made to
provide accurate,
timely
pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all
information
rests with the reader. Check out our
Gaia Forest
Conservation
Archives at URL= http://forests.org/
Networked
by Ecological Enterprises, gbarry@forests.org