They aren’t wildfires
A report authored by her organization notes that these fires are directly related to humans. “Its incidence in the region is directly related to human action,” the report says in Portugese, “and the flames usually follow the trail of deforestation: the more felled, the more hot spots.” Because the reserve lands are maintained using indigenous land use practices, there’s very limited deforestation, he says. It’s still threatened, however, “because the general ecological systems are drying out. Even in areas where there isn’t physical deforestation, there’s die-off and susceptibility to fire.”
Government police and deforestation are directly linked
Brazilian government fire management services (and the Brazilian environmental protection agency generally) have been significantly defunded in the wake of Bolsonaro’s election, something Heckenberger says is making it harder to manage fires. Deforestation itself has more than doubled against last year’s numbers, according to satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. Bolsonaro fired the head of the space agency over this data on Aug. 2, saying the data was false.
