Burnt trees after a forest fire in the Pantanal.
Photo: dpa/Agencia Brazil/Joédson Alves
It is a sad record: Brazil’s space research institute INPE counted 4,157 fires in the Pantanal from January to the end of July. In 2020, the worst disaster year to date for the world’s largest inland wetland, there were 3,620 fires during this period. In total, more than 900,000 hectares have already fallen victim to the flames this year, according to figures from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. That is more than twice as much as four years ago. Since the dry season is not yet over, scientists fear that the burned area could grow to over two million hectares by the end of the year.
The floodplain is almost half the size of Germany and is mostly in Brazil, with parts in Bolivia and Paraguay. It is considered to be particularly rich in species and is designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Most of the fires are set by farmers to gain pasture or arable land or simply to burn rubbish. As the drought increases, the fires can spread more widely and get out of control more often. The Pantanal is lacking more water every year, and less and less area is flooded. Global warming and reduced rainfall due to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest are contributing factors.
Soybean cultivation is spreading
At least 70 percent of the water that collects in the Pantanal comes from rivers that originate in the wet savannahs of the central Brazilian plateaus of Mato Grosso and that flood it seasonally. But it is precisely here that soybean cultivation has been spreading since the end of the 1970s. With disastrous consequences for the water balance. The large-scale monocultures allow less rain to seep into the soil than the natural vegetation, which subsequently causes springs to dry up. At the same time, the soybean fields cause increased soil erosion. With the rain, these sediments, including pesticide residues, reach the tributaries of the Pantanal. This silt load causes the rivers to become shallower and the water levels to fall.
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According to data from the scientific network Map Biomas, in 1985 the Pantanal had a water surface of 1.9 million hectares that lasted at least six months. In 2023, this figure had fallen to just 382,000 hectares, a decline of more than 80 percent. During the same period, the area used to grow soy increased fifteenfold.
Another factor is that more and more farmers are abandoning sustainable cattle farming, which has been practiced for more than 250 years and uses natural pastures. Instead, they or the agricultural companies investing in the region are focusing on meat production using new breeds of cattle and artificial pastures. They are cutting down and burning more and more natural vegetation and replacing it with Brachiaria grass varieties from Africa. These are among the invasive species that can spread and hinder the natural regeneration of native tree species.
Harmful livestock farming is increasing
Livestock farming, which is harmful to biodiversity and water resources, has increased from around 660,000 hectares to over 2.5 million hectares since 1985, while forest areas in the Pantanal have declined. In 1985, there were still 6 million hectares of tropical forest and savannah in the wetland. In 2021, according to Map Biomas, there were only 4.9 million hectares. “There is a climate problem, but there is also the problem of a lack of soil protection and the decline of native vegetation,” summarizes Eduardo Rosa, scientific coordinator of Map Biomas.
Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva recently blamed the exceptionally severe drought and climate change for the fact that fires in the Pantanal are breaking out earlier and more violently than usual. But that is only half the truth.
The water decline is exacerbated by 50 dams that have been built on the tributaries over the past two decades. These power plants turn off the water supply to the wetland and disrupt the natural flood cycle. But according to the environmental organization Ecologia e Ação, 13 more dams are under construction and 125 are planned.
