Wildfires in Brazil’s Pantanal becoming more likely because of climate change 

In Brazil’s Pantanal region, home to the world’s largest tropical wetland, a crew of firefighters layers on extra protective gear in the triple-digit heat before heading into the forest to fight a blaze. They use leaf-blowers to contain sparks and flames and machetes to create a fire-break.  

Firefighter Cleuton Santos Cordeiro, speaking through an interpreter, said that the wildfire in the Kadiwéu Indigenous Territory likely started when a farmer nearby burned his fields to clear them. 

“All [the] fires I’ve seen here have been started by people. They lose control of it for two reasons — because the wind is strong and the sparks fly, and also because of climate change, everything is drier, and there is no rain,” he said.

It’s been exceptionally hot and dry in the region, which has fueled big blazes much earlier in the year than usual. June broke fire records due to the abnormal weather conditions. 

The Pantanal wetlands stretch from Brazil into Paraguay and Bolivia and cover an area larger than England. Much of the region is typically flooded during the wet season, but this year, droughts have led to wildfires, destroying large swaths of vegetation and a diverse array of wildlife. Already, about 62% of the Kadiwéu Indigenous Territory has burned.  

Firefighting operations for the over-2,000-square mile Kadiwéu Indigenous Territory are being coordinated from the village of Tomazia, home to about 85 families. There, at his desk, the firefighting Director of Operations Ronaldo Constantino is glued to satellite imagery of the fires.

Constantino said that one of his teams was battling a canopy fire threatening a village across the territory. He sent planes to drop water on the fire, but thick smoke eventually grounded the aircraft.

The impact of Brazil’s historic drought on the Kadiwéu land is evident. The landscape usually greens up in the rainy season, from roughly November to April, when much of the Pantanal floods and large parts are accessible only by boat. Now, the leaves on many trees are shriveled and brown, the grasses a burnt orange.

Tomazia resident and firefighter Luciana Correa da Silva said that people don’t go out much at that time of year, because it’s hard to get around. 

But those floods didn’t come this past rainy season, leaving vegetation that’s usually underwater much of the year available as wildfire fuel. 

“This year, the drought came here earlier and in a very severe way,” she said. 

The blazes got bad in June — before local firefighters had even reported for duty for the season.

Scientists expect more of the Brazilian Pantanal could burn this year than ever before. About 15% of it already has, according to experts. 

The fires reached the edge of Tomazia village last month. 

Village chief Eudes de Souza Abicho, walking past a dried-out coconut tree, showed the charred bark and blackened soil just past a cattle fence at the edge of the village. 

“We were scared because some of the houses in the village are still built with palm leaves, and they burn really quickly, and we were scared that the fire could reach these houses. And it took us three days to put this fire down.”

No houses burned, and no one was hurt.

But even when the fires are miles away, the thick gray smoke is ever-present, stinging eyes, irritating noses and at times making it hard to breathe. 

Community health worker Glaucia Farias said more kids are coming to her clinic during fire season this year with runny noses and nose bleeds, and her patients with respiratory illnesses are having a hard time. 

Another resident, Solange Felix Farias, said her elders in the Terena Indigenous community — which is among those communities, along with the Kadiwéu, considered the original people of the Pantanal — always talked about burning grasslands to renew pastures.

“It was part of the culture. But at that time, we had rain, and the rain would stop the fires from advancing so fast and so much, and now, I think due to climate change, the situation is very different.”

In the long run, scientists expect the Pantanal to see more heat waves, drier conditions, and more wildfires as the climate continues to warm. 

“For us, the original people of the Pantanal, it’s a great sadness to see all the plants, all [the] animals [lost in the fires]. This fire comes to destroy everything. And for us, it’s very sad because we depend and rely on our environment to survive.”

The CO2 Foundation provided support for this reporting.