Flames of Amazonia

Fires in the Amazon

The Amazon plays a massive role in the Earth’s ecosystem and is also an iconic symbol of environmental vulnerability, indigeneity, and international cooperation.

Fires in the Amazon are seasonal, but fire intensity since 2001 has spiked this past summer, correlating with a relatively recent increase in deforestation efforts. In August 2019 alone, the Amazon is said to have had 80,000 fires—the highest ever recorded in a month. [1]

We identified fires in indigenous territories recognized by Fundación Nacional del Indio (FUNAI) using data on all fire events detected through MODIS from 2000 to 2019 from NASA's FIRMS project.

The Amazon is home to indigenous communities

Mainstream media coverage tends to focus on the environmental damage of the Amazon forest fires (eg: loss of wildlife and biodiversity, emissions into the atmosphere, local air pollution etc.) much more so than the consequential displacement of indigenous groups residing in the Amazon.

Approximately 6,345 indigenous territories or regions have been identified within the Amazon. [2] According to ScienceDaily, with increasing plans for economic development and infrastructure, a vast majority of indigenous lands alongside protected areas in the Brazillian Amazon are at high risk of experiencing disaster. [3] Despite this, indigenous groups are currently at the forefront of the movement to protect the rainforest against further deforestation, illegal logging, and other human invested harmful environmental activities.

Our research focus

To what extent are indigenous lands affected by deforestation-related fires?

Indigenous land stewardship is proven to be vital to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest: demarcated indigenous lands are protected both by the law and by residing tribes against incursions by loggers and cattle ranchers. As such, statistics show that rates of deforestation drop significantly within indigenous borders. [4]

However, the protections nominally offered by the Brazilian government are precarious at best. The demarcation process that protects ancestral lands is often slow to complete or altogether paralyzed, subject to shifting political agendas and bureaucratic fine print. Moreover, protections to already demarcated lands are often unenforced by local government agencies, frequently leaving vulnerable indigenous communities to fend for themselves against illegal invasions and land disputes. [5]

Since the start of his term in January, President Bolsonaro has made attempts to defang the two government agencies responsible for the protection of the Amazon and its indigenous residents, IBAMA and FUNAI. Additionally, Bolsonaro's pro-agribusiness campaign has emboldened both private land owners and illegal land grabbers (grileiros) residing in the Amazon to claim and deforest land, especially that which lies at or past the borders of indigenous lands. [6]

Focus Regions Fire Count (2001–2019)

We narrowed down the thousands of indigenous territories located within the countries of the Brazillian Amazon to ten specific regions. These regions demonstrate the highest cumulative fire counts over the past two decades from 2000 to September 2019.

Indigenous Region Fire Count (2001–2019)

We further condensed the data down to three focus regions — these three territories presented relatively greater fire count in comparison to other indigenous lands. We wanted to investigate the historical and political context of these lands to identify potential causative factors. Size of the land did not appear to be a relatively indicative factor.
This story examines some patterns in our three focus regions.