The Brazilian Amazon is burning. Yet again

A more dramatic illustration of the failure of REDD is difficult to imagine.

PHOTO Credit: Fires rage along Brazil’s deforestation frontier, NASA.

Six years ago, Lauren Gifford, a geographer at Colorado State University, wrote a Guest Post for REDD-Monitor about the fires in the Amazon.

Gifford wrote that,

As the Amazon rainforest burns, and reaches what some scientists have called a “tipping point,” beyond which it might never recover, it is time to unequivocally call an end to the experiment that is REDD+, the development mechanism designed to offset carbon dioxide pollution via investment in tropical forest conservation. The attempt to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation has failed.

In August 2019, the same month that Gifford wrote the Guest Post, NASA reported that the number and intensity of fires in the Brazilian Amazon recorded up to that point in 2019 were the worst since 2010.

In 2019, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was the highest since 2008.

Gifford concluded her Guest Post with the words, “REDD is dead.”

2019, of course, was Jair Bolsonaro’s first year as president of Brazil. Bolsonaro had no interest in protecting the Amazon rainforest.

In 2019, the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) saw its budget cut by 25%. In August 2019, the head of Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) was sacked after INPE reported that in June 2019, the deforestation rate had shot up by 88%.

Gifford sums up the “Bolsonaro problem” well:

Since taking office January 1, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has widely incited anti-indigenous sentiment. He has spoken about the value of the resources in the Amazon, and positioned indigenous and forest dependent communities as obstacles to resource extraction and capital accumulation. He has denied indigenous land tenure claims and encouraged the murder, abuse, and violent displacement of indigenous communities. The fires we see burning are the direct result of Bolsonaro’s encouragement of extractive industries to take what they want; the fires are the primal image of state-sponsored disregard for the culture, ecology, and biodiversity of the Amazon. They are the embodiment of capitalism and fascism run amok.

An end to Amazon deforestation in Brazil by 2030?

Since taking office in January 2023, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has taken steps to address deforestation. In 2023, the rate of primary forest loss in the country fell significantly.

In June 2023, Lula announced a plan to end Amazon deforestation in Brazil by 2030.

But this year, Brazil is once again seeing record fires. In August 2024, according to INPE there were 38,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon. That’s the highest since 2010.

Many of these fires are taking place in agricultural land. Many were started deliberately. And many are spreading to forests.

The fires are exacerbated by the drought that the country is facing. Brazil is suffering its worst drought since measurements began, more than 70 years ago. Almost 60% of the country is under stress.

In September 2024, Ana Paula Cunha, a researcher at the National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, said in a statement that,

“This is the first time that a drought has covered all the way from the North to the country’s Southeast. It is the most intense and widespread drought in history.”

The following is a selection from the many recent reports about the fires:

• The BBC reports on fires affecting the Caititu Indigenous people in Amazonas state. Raimundinha Rodrigues Da Sousa runs the fire service for the Caititu community. She says that today the fires are “killing the plants, in a while it will be us, because we inhale so much”. More than 62,000 square kilometres have burned so far this year in Brazil.

• The Guardian reports from Humaitá in Amazonas state where water in the River Maderia has fallen to its lowest level since the 1960s. The sky is full of smoke from wildfires. “Indigenous communities have been hit particularly hard,” The Guardian writes.

• The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reports that in 2024, wildfire emissions in Amazonas and Mato Gross do Sul states are the highest in the 22 years of the CAMS fire emissions dataset. Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist at CAMS, says that, “In 2024, the wildfire activity in South America has been markedly above average, especially in the Amazon region and in the Pantanal wetlands.”

• Amnesty International published an Open Letter to South American presidents about the wildfires: “August and September 2024 have seen record fires across South America, with several millions of hectares burning not only in rainforests of the Amazon basin, but also in diverse ecosystems stretching across entire countries.”

• The Independent reports on the extreme drought in Brazil. Christine Halvorson of Rainforest Foundation US says, “The rivers are at the lowest level in decades, if not forever. You know, it’s the worst fire season in the past 19 years, worst drought in 40 years — and perhaps the worst ever.” She added that, “I think it’s clear that the increase in intensity of the fires and dry season is due to the climate crisis.”

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