The Brazilian Amazon with the most forest fires in January

The Brazilian Amazon recorded 2,049 forest fires in January, practically twice as many as in the same period last year (1059) and the highest number for the month of January in the last eight years, the Government reported on Thursday.

The number of heat sources measured in January by satellites of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE, acronym in Portuguese) was not high for this month compared to the record 4,657 registered in the first month of 2016, according to data released by the organization associated with Ministry of Science and Technology.

Although it jumped by 94 percent compared to January last year, the number of fires in the first month of this year decreased by 56.4 percent compared to December 2023 (4,701) and was the lowest in the month since last May (1,692).

Heat sources have been progressively falling in recent months, from 26,452 in September, when they reached the highest level of the year, to 22,061 in October, 13,943 in November, 4,701 in December and 2,049 in January.

The large number of heat sources in a month where fires tend to decrease is attributed to the historic drought the Amazon has been facing since last September, which has been attributed to the effects of El Niño phenomenon.

According to meteorologists’ predictions, these effects, mainly the decrease in the number of rains in the region, will begin to disappear only between February and March.

Despite the drought, which reduced Amazon river levels to historically low levels, the number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon decreased by 10.8% in 2023, to 98,646.

The reduction of heat sources last year in unfavorable conditions is attributed to the efforts The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stop the devastation of the biome.

From taking over the third mandate, 01.01.2023. Pipe increased resources and surveillance in the Amazon region with the aim of achieving the goal to which it is dedicated, ending it illegal cutting of forests until 2030

According to INPE data, his measures allowed for a 51.5% reduction in deforestation of the world’s largest tropical forest in the first eleven months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, when during the leader’s rule far-right Jair Bolsonarodestruction biome It was a record.