• Regional authorities in Brazil declared a state of emergency as the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, faces out of control fires.
• The surge of fires before the peak of the dry season has raised alarm for the Pantanal, which extends into Bolivia and Paraguay and is home to a rich array of wildlife, including the world’s highest density of jaguars.
• The six-month state of emergency was declared by the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, home to much of the wetlands in Brazil.
• Experts say the blazes are a result of a harsh drought and deliberate fires set to expand agricultural land into the forest that burn out of control.
• According to reports, 627,000 hectares of the Pantanal have already gone up in flames since the start of the year.
• The Pantanal, a region slightly bigger than England, experienced its worst year for fires in 2020, when 30 per cent of the wetlands were affected.
Key facts about Pantanal:
• The Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland.
• At 42 million acres, the Pantanal sprawls across three countries — Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.
• The Pantanal wetlands in central-western Brazil are home to a wide variety of animals, including jaguars, anacondas and giant anteaters.
• It is one of the most biologically rich environments in the world, giving a home to more than 4,700 animal and plant species, including South America’s highest concentration of the jaguar.
• Around 95 per cent of the Pantanal is under private ownership.
• Pantanal is considered the largest periodically flooded area of the American continent.
• It constitutes an enormous internal delta, in which several rivers flowing from the highlands merge.
• In 2000, part of this ecoregion, the ‘Pantanal Conservation Area’, representing 1.3 per cent of the Brazilian Pantanal, was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
• In the same year, 26,400,000 hectares were named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The third largest biosphere reserve in the world, the Pantanal Biosphere Reserve is home to a diversity of flora and fauna.
• It has the largest concentration of crocodiles in the world, with approximately 10 million caimans.
• Nearly two million people live in the World Heritage site and Biosphere Reserve.
• The wetland is dependent on the annual cycle of wet and dry seasons. Each year between October and April, torrential rains pour across the landscape, causing several major rivers including the Paraguay River to overflow. The widespread flooding creates large pools which spur reproduction of fish, attract many species of birds, and impel luxurious plant growth.
• When the rains come to an end, the water slowly recedes, leaving shallow pools which concentrate fish populations into a buffet-style feast for wading birds and even some mammals.
• By May, residents begin to clear fields and plant crops, while local cattle ranchers move their herds into the region to feed on luxuriant grasses. Farmers often use fire to manage the land for agriculture, and the dry Pantanal is very vulnerable to severe damage when fire is overused or when it escapes control to become a wildfire.
• Weak rains since late last year have disrupted the usual seasonal flooding, leaving more of the region vulnerable to fires.
• The inhabitants of the Pantanal are mostly farmers, hunters, and fishermen, and they are increasingly turning to ecotourism to tap the rich biodiversity of the wetlands.
• Climate change has threatened that livelihood by increasing the incidence of fires that ravage the region, killing the flora and fauna.