A look on the current situation of the Brazilian Pantanal and its consequences.
The Brazilian “Pantanal”, the world's largest floodable wetland, until now, one of the most preserved biomes in Brazil, it's a place of refuge to the country's flora and fauna, since it's shelter to animals that had already been extinct in other areas, such as Panthera Onca (onça pintada), it's living the worse crisis of the past few years. According to the brazilian National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the fires increased more than 220% in 2020 also, according to five expertise made in the Mato Grosso State, the fires in that area are caused by human action - landowners, usually land invaders, are the ones who do the biggest part of criminal fires aiming the agriculture and pastoral raising. In that way, the crisis that persists for over 3 months has already consumed about 20% of the vegetation and is still proceeding even after the rain's arrival, threatening the national ecosystem.
The crisis that's been witnessed by the biome is a reflection of the Brazilian government's lack of commitment, since not only the president, Jair Bolsonaro, but the Environment Minister, Ricardo Salles, made their support to the agribusiness and to their growing without planning clear, which is against the preservation of native ecosystem. Therefore, the absence of investment preservation and environmental control, in addition to the slow federal government's answer when it comes to the fires containment, led to not only the carbonization and hurting of several species, but, also, to the loss of land quality and air pollution.
In order to measure the extent of the tragedy related to the species preserved by the Pantanal area, the Encontro das Águas State Park (Mato Grosso, Poconé), has the highest concentration of jaguars in the world, had about 85% of the total area destroyed by fires - about 92 thousand hectares burned - which also affects the fauna and flora of the region, victimizing birds and various terrestrial and aquatic animals, since the entire food chain has been compromised.
In this context, originally Brazilian species at risk of disappearing, such as Arara Azul, Jacu de Barriga Castanha and Cervo do Pantanal, besides having to fight against extinction, will also fight against fires in the habitat that previously ensured their protection.
Furthermore, the fires affect, as well, the water in the largest humid place on earth, intervening on the amount of fish and on the quality of water on rivers, since the presence of ashes on them result on the proliferation of bacterias and consequently depletion of oxygen gas (O2), worrying factor, therefore the Pantanal Mato Grossense is a massive freshwater reservoir.
Certainly, beyond the animals and vegetation affected by the fire, the ribeirinha population - tradicional inhabitants of riverbanks - are also directly affected, where, in some cases, aside from becoming homeless,these people need to be rescued. Besides that, not only the big fire in Pantanal, but any kind of forest fire and deforestation affect as well the urban population, as the smoke particles are released to the atmosphere and then carried by the wind to other places, which may aggravate existing respiratory problems or unleash new ones, in addition to enhance the global warming, because of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted.
Therefore, the conservation is fundamental to the health of the ones living in green areas, as well of the ones living in urban areas, since biomes play an important role in ecological, economic and even social level because of their huge connection with the resources that support all kinds of life.
By Clara Lima, YCAC LATAM
Comments