Amazon: why it catches fire, the plan to fight the fire and how long it will take to recover

The Amazon, the largest tropical forest in the world, with an area of ​​5.5 million square kilometers, is threatened by increasing deforestation. The main causes are soybean and livestock production, construction of hydroelectric dams and roads, mining and quarrying. forest fires, such as the one that currently affects the area.

The faces of the Amazon jungle fire record, many of them are products of the clearing. Outbreaks have increased by 83% this year compared to 2018, due to the fire of the Amazon region, reinforced by the dry season, with thick clouds of smoke that covered in recent days several cities, including San Pablo.

Between January and August 19, 2019, he saved 72,843 projectorscompared to 39,759 at the same time last year, plus 9,500 in the last week alone. The increase marks a decline after two years of declining indicator, according to data from the Burning Program (INPE) of the National Institute of Space Research.

According to specialists, these outbreaks have intensified due to the rapid progression of deforestation in the Amazon region, which quadrupled in July compared to the same month in 2018, according to data from the INPE.

Joint operation of the fight against the fire

The Colombian government has proposed to its counterparts in Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru to carry out a "joint project" of environmental disaster prevention. "We proposed to carry out a forest fire prevention project in the Amazon and to build a common agenda facing the effects of climate change, deforestation and degradation in this region, "said Colombian Minister of the Environment, Ricardo José Lozano.

According to the Colombian government, 197,159 hectares of natural forest were deforested last year, representing a reduction of 22,814 hectares compared to 219,973 hectares in 2017.

Lozano explained that in Colombia currently, a "preventive forest policy" is being implemented to prevent a situation similar to that occurring in Brazil. "We have already contacted the government of Jair Bolsonaro and we are waiting for him to provide us with much more sophisticated information on the real numbers of the devastation," he said.

The project proposed by Colombia is part of "initiatives with local communities, prevention and pacts for forests where the community is committed to do not practice prohibited practices in drought, as in August. "The intention," said the official, "is to establish a" frontal struggle "against illegality linked to indiscriminate logging and cash trafficking.

Recovery

"It's a disturbing situation that generates helplessness and frustration.We lose the most precious treasure we can have as humanity," he said. TN the environmental engineer Mauricio Cogollo on the progress of the fire.

When asked if a weather forecast could be made that would require the region to recover, he said, "The time it takes is important, but there is also a way to recover the losses. There is no way out to plant trees, more than 500 000 hectares burned, recover this it will take decades and maybe more".

"Burning land is an ancestral custom that causes rust and fertilization of the land, burning the land, all the wildlife is washed away, it is irreparable damage," said the specialist.