There were one-fifth more fires in August this year than in August on average.
The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in August was the highest since August 2010.
Around 31,500 fires were detected in the Amazon during the first 30 days of August this year in satellite monitoring by INPE, Brazil’s space research center. The number is the highest since August 2010, when there were more than 45,000 fires during the entire month.
The fiercest fire season in the Amazon typically begins in August, when the weather becomes drier. Most of the alarms registered by satellites come in August and September.
The last day of the month is still missing from monitoring the number of fires in August this year. Nevertheless, the number of fires in August is about 12 percent higher than in August 2021, and about 20 percent higher than the August average, according to INPE’s statistics. They have been collected since 1998.
Presidential elections in October
The news agency AFP also reported last week that the worst forest fire day in 15 years was recorded in the Amazon at the end of August. On August 22, INPE detected a total of 3,358 fires, which is the highest one-day reading since September 2007.
– The fiercest fire areas are constantly moving forward towards the north, said INPE’s head of fire monitoring Alberto Setzer to AFP at the time.
Brazil will hold presidential elections in October. The leading candidates strongly disagree about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Representing the Labor Party, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vowed to increase Amazon protections and blame the sitting president Jair Bolsonaro about deforestation.
Experts also accuse Bolsonaro of dismantling environmental protection in Brazil. Since he took office in 2019, farmers and ranchers have illegally cleared more and more of the Amazon.