Fires in Brazil's Pantanal push wetland community to the limit July 5, 2024

A sunset is seen through the smoke of forest fires in the Brazilian Pantanal on June 28, 2024 (Pablo PORCIUNCULA)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Fires in Brazil's Pantanal push wetland community to the limit

VITORIA VELEZ

A riverside community in Brazil's Pantanal narrowly escaped fierce forest fires last month, but some say the record-breaking blazes - which are still burning nearby - are exacerbating threats to their way of life.

"The river was the only thing separating us from the flames. On the other side, the fire has devastated everything," said Virginia Paes, local leader of the Baia Negra Environmental Protection Area (APA), where 28 families live.

Four years ago, similar fires hit the 5,400-hectare (13,300-acre) reserve along the Paraguay River in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in southwestern Brazil.

"We were just trying to recover from the 2020 fire, which devastated our Pantanal. We hadn't fully recovered and now we're facing it again," Paes, a volunteer firefighter and president of the Association of Women Producers of the APA, told AFP.

Although homes and lives were spared, said Paes, 53, the dense smoke from the fires made breathing and daily routines difficult.

This year's fires broke records from January to June in the Pantanal, a huge area of tropical wetlands that is home to millions of caimans, parrots, giant otters, and the highest density of jaguars in the world.

The Baia Negra APA, on the outskirts of the border town of Corumbá and neighboring Ladário, is the first to be created in the Pantanal, which is rich in biodiversity and allows for the sustainable exploitation of resources.

The population there lives from fishing, handicrafts, and a robust ecotourism sector, among other jobs.

- 'Guardians' under threat - you

According to the Corumbá Social Assistance Secretariat and the NGO Ecoa, in 2020, 651 families lived in the riverside town and Ladário.

These "traditional Pantanal communities are the true guardians of the ecosystems they manage," said André Luiz Siqueira, director of Programs and Projects at the NGO Ecoa.

"They are the ones who suffer most from the impacts of fires," he warned.

"I'm worried that in a few years, we could have climate change in the biome."

On the coast of Ilha do Bracinho, which was burned by fires last month, three fishermen are trying their luck.

According to them, fishing has become more difficult due to the fires, which are poisoning the fish and making the activity more difficult.

A severe drought, which scientists say has exacerbated this year's fires, has also lowered the water level in the river.

"Everything is gone: the fish, the bait," Marcelo Henrique, 33, told AFP.

He said he used to make a living from fishing but has now taken a job at a steel mill in Ladario.

"The bays have dried up... There used to be 30, or 40 boats around here. Now you hardly see any."

- Night-time curfew

In his hut on state highway MS 428, Renato Andrade remembers better days, when hunting and fishing were plentiful - and threats from jaguars rarer.

The 52-year-old told AFP that after the 2020 fire, capybaras, the jaguars' natural prey, became "scarce".

"Before, there was no talk of jaguar attacks nearby. Now I hear them roaring around the house. I can't have dogs, we've lost count of how many have been eaten by jaguars," he said.

Fearing for his own life, he said he has changed his daily routine.

"At night, now you have to stay inside. After 6:30 pm, nobody wants to be outside" for fear of attacks.

He said he has also stopped fishing alone at night, as he used to.

"I can't, otherwise I'll end up becoming jaguar dinner."

rsr/mdl/des