BRAZIL. 2019. According to the government, 2019 was a normal year in terms of wildfires the state of Mato Grosso. Despite the 85% increase confirmed by the Brazilian National Space Research Institute. The numbers and versions vary but what is confirmed is the increase by 500% iof deforestation in the areas of intense agro-business, like Sorriso and Sinop. In Claudia, the border of the legal Amazonia and where the jungle is supposted to be protected from the agro-business, fires have been a constant since the beginning of the dry season.
Fires can come from land owners who clean the remains, reactivate the land after harvest, thunderstorms and even traditional hunting from the indigenous villages that remain in the area, but deforestation is a criminal act that is difficult to track and prosecute and who´sprotection budget has been reduced significantly with Bolsonaro´s government.
In the picture, the fire destroys the protected area of a farmer´s settlement called Asentamento Victoria. Settlers are given small plots of land by the government to make them productive. Many times remote and with lack of control, the small fires made to clean the remains of harvest may get out of control and end up with the devastation of large portions of the protected areas.
The fire brigade has in many cases little to do when the owners of the land do not have the means to fight against the fire by themselves and they just come to control the proliferation of the fire to assess if more help is needed.