SUNS 4506 Monday 13 September 1999

Brazil: Drought, slash-and-burn lead to forest fires

Rio de Janeiro, Sep 6 (IPS/Mario Osava) -- Brazil's environmental ministry imposed a 60-day ban on the slash-and-burn technique used by farmers to prepare land for cultivation because of the tens of thousands of fires is now affecting most of the country.

A prolonged drought coupled with the traditional practice of using fire to rid fields of stubble from previous crops or to clear forests have led to a disaster that, to some degree, is repeated every year in Brazil.

But this year, the lack of rain and low humidity have worsened the problem, plaguing areas extending from the south to some parts of the country's north. The hardest hit regions of the southeast and central-west have not seen rain in more than 70 days.

In August, the U.S. meteorological satellite NOAA recorded 30,213 fires, with nearly half of them in the centre-west Amazon state of Mato Grosso.

Sao Paulo, with more than 10 million residents, currently suffers its worst drought in 24 years. Just 1.4 mm of rain fell in August compared to the area's normal 40 mm average rainfall for the month, putting the availability of drinkable water at risk.

The pollution problem has worsened as well. Most organisations tracking the state of the environment have indicated that air quality is inadequate, and in some neighbourhoods a state of pre- emergency has been declared due to the foul air.
The air-pollution situation has driven up hospitalisation rates for respiratory diseases.

Last weekend fires destroyed at least 10 square km of forests in Serra da Cantareira, one of the few forest preserves near Sao Paulo. Other native forest areas suffered smaller fires.

Air humidity fell to a low of 10.7 percent last week. Brasilia, which reports aridity levels similar to the Sahara Desert, has seen humidity levels of between 12 and 20 percent, low enough to be dangerous according to the World Health Organisation.

Officials from the Brazilian Environmental Institute (IBAMA - the executive body of the environmental ministry), who are responsible for fire fighting and prevention, admitted that the situation is out of control in some areas of the nation's centre- west.

Airplanes sent by the government to northeast Mato Grosso state to help fire-fighters were unable to fly near the area due to the smoke that covers a large band of the east and southeast of the Amazon region, impeding visibility from the air.

In just the first four days of September, 2,736 fires were verified in this state, adding to August's total of 13,268.

In the neighbouring state of Mato Grosso do Sul, flames threatened the forests of Serra da Bodoquena, which the government had hoped to turn into an environmentally protected area.

The number of fires in Mato Grosso do Sul is four times greater than last year. The state government is using agricultural airplanes to combat the fires and has set up a telephone number to receive reports of intentional burnings.

In Par , another Amazon state in the north where numerous fires were started by farmers trying to expand their land to plant crops or for grazing, more than 5,000 fires were counted in August.

Jose Sarney Filho, the environmental minister, called the landowners and farmers who continue using fire to clear land "irresponsible outlaws," but he exempted the government from blame in a situation he says has been created by a drought that is much worse than in previous years.

Authorities recognise the impossibility of putting an immediate end to the farmers' custom and are now trying to subject the burnings to authorisation. Currently, such authorisation is suspended for 60 days, and permits already granted have been revoked.

But the measure was adopted late in the game and has limited effects because most fires are set without IBAMA's knowledge. The organisation lacks sufficient human and material resources to carry out the environmental policies defined by the ministry.

Now all hopes are pinned on rain. In Paran , the state most affected in southern Brazil, rain fell Monday, extinguishing the fires in the western part of the state on the Paraguayan border.
Brazil's National Institute for Space Research predicts the drought will continue throughout most of the country at least through Thursday.