Brazil

In the Amazon rainforest, the month of August saw the number of fires surge to the highest levels since 2010, government data released on Sunday (Sep 1) showed. The increase follows a record drought that has been plaguing the biome.

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How many fires are we talking about?

According to the data from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), satellites in August detected over 38,000 fires — 38,266 to be exact. This is more than double compared to the fires in the Amazon rainforest in 2023, and the highest — by about 38 per cent, for this month in over a decade — since 2010.

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This 14-year high, as per a Reuters report, comes after fire hotspots in August surged to a two-decade high and as Brazil battles the second straight year of extreme drought.

Conditions contributing to the fires

As per the report in the naturally wet, moist biome, fires usually start due to cattle ranching as people convert the jungle into pastures. Dry conditions and warm air aid the spread of these fires, which burn more intensely and for longer.

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In August, thousands of fires were driven by a combination of weather, climate change and human action, said Helga Correa, a conservation specialist at WWF-Brasil, in an initial assessment.

Also read | Brazil deploys 1,500 firefighters to tackle Amazon wildfires amidst severe drought

"The region where we detected concentrated smoke in August coincides with the so-called Arch of Deforestation, which includes the north of Rondonia, the south of Amazonas and the southwest of Para," said Correa.

"This indicates that, in addition to climate change and El Niño, changes in land use produced by humans play a central role in the increase in fires," she added.