A10 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONALSATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2020
This year, roughly a quarter of the vast
Pantanal wetland in Brazil, one of the
most biodiverse places on Earth, has
burned in wildfires worsened by climate
change. What happens to a rich and
unique biome when so much is de-
stroyed?
The unprecedented fires in the wet-
land have attracted less attention than
blazes in Australia, the Western United
States and the Amazon, its celebrity sib-
ling to the north. But while the Pantanal
is not a global household name, tourists
in the know flock there because it is
home to exceptionally high concentra-
tions of breathtaking wildlife: Jaguars,
tapirs, endangered giant otters and
bright blue hyacinth macaws. Like a vast
tub, the wetland swells with water dur-
ing the rainy season and empties out dur-
ing the dry months. Fittingly, this
rhythm has a name that evokes a beating
heart: the flood pulse.
The wetland, which is larger than
Greece and stretches over parts of
Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, also offers
unseen gifts to a vast swath of South
America by regulating the water cycle
upon which life depends. Its countless
swamps, lagoons and tributaries purify
water and help prevent floods and
droughts. They also store untold
amounts of carbon, helping to stabilize
the climate.
For centuries, ranchers have used fire
to clear fields and new land. But this
year, drought worsened by climate
change turned the wetlands into a tin-
derbox and the fires raged out of control.
“The extent of fires is staggering,” said
Douglas C. Morton, who leads the Bio-
spheric Sciences Laboratory at the
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and
studies fire and food production in South
America. “When you wipe out a quarter
of a biome, you create all kinds of unprec-
edented circumstances.”
His analysis showed that at least 22
percent of the Pantanal in Brazil has
burned since January, with the worst
fires, in August and September, blazing
for two months straight.
Naturally occurring fire plays a role in
the Pantanal, in addition to the burning
by ranchers. The flames are usually con-
tained by the landscape’s mosaic of wa-
ter. But this year’s drought sucked these
natural barriers dry. The fires are far
worse than any since satellite records
began.They are also worse than any in the
memory of the Guató people, an Indige-
nous group whose ancestors have lived
in the Pantanal for thousands of years.
Guató leaders in an Indigenous terri-
tory called Baía dos Guató said the fires
spread from the ranches that surround
their land, and satellite images confirm
that the flames swept in from the outside.
When fire started closing in on the home
of Sandra Guató Silva, a community
leader and healer, she fought to save it
with the help of her son, grandson and a
boat captain with a hose.
For many desperate hours, she said,
they threw buckets of river water and
sprayed the area around the house and
its roof of thatched palm leaves. They
succeeded in defending it, but at least 85
percent of her people’s territory burned,
according to Instituto Centro de Vida, a
nonprofit group that monitors land use in
the area. Throughout the Pantanal, al-
most half of the Indigenous lands
burned, an investigative journalism or-
ganization called Agência Pública found.
Now Ms. Guató Silva mourns the loss
of nature itself. “It makes me sick,” she
said. “The birds don’t sing anymore. I no
longer hear the song of the Chaco
chachalaca bird. Even the jaguar that
once scared me is suffering. That hurtsme. I suffer from depression because of
this. Now there is a hollow silence. I feel
as though our freedom has left us, has
been taken from us with the nature that
we have always protected.”
Now these people of the wetlands,
some still coughing after weeks of
smoke, are depending on donations of
water and food. They fear that once the
rains come in October, ash will run into
the rivers and kill the fish they rely on for
their food and livelihood.
“I couldn’t help but think, our Pantanal
is dead,” said Eunice Morais de Amorim,
another member of the community. “It is
so terrible.”
Scientists are scrambling to deter-
mine an estimate of animals killed in the
fires. While large mammals and birds
have died, many were able to run or fly
away. It appears that reptiles, amphib-
ians and small mammals have fared the
worst. In places like California, small ani-
mals often take refuge underground dur-
ing wildfires. But in the Pantanal, scien-
tists say, fires burn underground too, fu-
eled by dried-out wetland vegetation.
One of the hard-hit places was a national
park designated as a United Nations
World Heritage site.
“I don’t want to be an alarmist,” said
José Sabino, a biologist at the An-Inferno Threatens World’s Largest Tropical Wetland
This article is by Catrin Einhorn, Maria
Magdalena Arréllaga, Blacki Migliozzi
and Scott Reinhard.
Above, veterinarians and volunteers at the emergency wildlife triage unit in
Poconé, a region in southwest Brazil, changing the bandages of a coati that
was burned in the fires. Below, the body of a cocoi heron lying in the mud.
‘I suffer from depression because of this. Now
there is a hollow silence. I feel as though our
freedom has left us, has been taken from us with
the nature that we have always protected.’
SANDRA GUATÓ SILVA, a community leader and healer
in an Indigenous territory called Baía dos Guató2020 Is the Most Active Fire Year
on Record for the Pantanal
11,000 cumulative
fire detections
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,Jan. Mar. May July Sept. Dec.
Note: Cumulative sum of fire detections across the
Pantanal Biome. Data as of Oct. 12. Instruments on
Terra and Aqua satellites have experienced periodic
failures.·Source: NASA Terra and Aqua satellite data,
based on detections with greater than 95 percent
confidence levels.
BLACKI MIGLIOZZI/THE NEW YORK TIMES2020Other years
since 20012019