The fires, which began a little over a month ago, have already destroyed around 627 thousand hectares and are considered the most serious ever recorded in the Pantanal at this time of year.
Mato Grosso do Sul declared this Monday a state of emergency due to the fires that have been raging for weeks in the sensitive biome of the Pantanal, one of the largest wetlands on the planet located in the central-west of Brazil.
The statement was published in the Official Gazette of Mato Grosso do Sul at a time when the flames are expanding and the smoke they cause begins to affect several cities in that state.
The fires, which started just over a month ago, They have already destroyed around 627 thousand hectares and are considered the most serious ever recorded in the Pantanal at this time of year.
According to local authorities, one of the causes of the fires is climate change, which has aggravated the drought that the region suffers at this time of year and which normally lasts until November.
According to the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), which monitors the region through satellites, 2,363 fires were detected in the Brazilian Pantanal in the first 20 days of Juneseven times more than in the same period last year.
The emergency decree is valid for 180 days in which the state government may mobilize state bodies to act, under the coordination of the Civil Defense, in response actions to the disaster caused by the fire, rehabilitation of the site and reconstruction.
Last week, the Brazilian government created a crisis office to monitor the situation and sent employees specialized in extinguishing fires in the Pantanal.
The Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, had already warned about the possibility of serious fires occurring in the Pantanal this year, due to the incidence of the El Niño phenomenon.
Likewise, Brazil is preparing for the possibility of large fires breaking out in the Amazon during the second half of this year, also due to the impact of climate change.
Source: Observadora
