Fire in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest

So far in 2019, Brazil reported 83,000 fires, a 77% increase from the same period last year. Many of those were set in already deforested areas by people clearing land for cultivation or pasture. With over 98% of Brazil’s indigenous lands within the Amazon, the threat to groups like Kayapo’s are particularly exposed.

According to Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, an estimated 3,553 fires are now burning on 148 indigenous territories in the region. Kayapo indigenous members organized village’s watch group to protect the community’s lands from encroaching flames as well as illegal loggers, miners and others seeking to exploit the area. With fires spreading quickly to wide swaths of indigenous territories in recent weeks, this task has grown more critical. “Just outside, our reserve is being heavily deforested. It’s being badly destroyed,” Mydje Kayapo, one of the leaders, said. “We indigenous people need to be united.”

As a multitude of international players discuss how to develop and protect the Amazon, Kayapo and others find themselves on the front line of firefighting efforts and an ever-acrimonious feud with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Boslonaro has come under harsh criticism for environmental policies that some say are weakening safeguards in the rainforest. He maintains Europeans are trying to infringe on his country’s sovereignty, while also arguing that the demarcation of indigenous lands has hindered business interests.

The municipality of Nova Santa Helena in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state was also hard-hit. Trucks were seen driving along a highway Friday as fires blazed and embers smoldered in adjacent fields Backed by military aircraft, Brazilian troops were deployed in the Amazon to fight fires that have swept the region and prompted anti-government protests as well as an international outcry

Neri dos Santos Silva, center, watches an encroaching fire threat after digging trenches to keep the flames from spreading to the farm he works on, in the Nova Santa Helena municipality, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Under increasing international pressure to contain fires sweeping parts of the Amazon, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday authorized use of the military to battle the massive blazes. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Fire consumes the Amazon rainforest in Altamira, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019. Fires across the Brazilian Amazon have sparked an international outcry for preservation of the world's largest rainforest. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Trees are destroyed after a fire in the Alvorada da Amazonia region in Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. The country's satellite monitoring agency has recorded more than 41,000 fires in the Amazon region so far this year, with more than half of those coming in August alone. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
In this Aug. 26, 2019 photo, the land smolders during a forest fire in Altamira in Brazil's Amazon. The fire is very close to Kayapo indigenous land located on the Bau indigenous reserve. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
In this Aug. 26, 2019 photo, a youth from the Kayapo indigenous community bathes in the river at dusk near his village in the Bau indigenous reserve in Altamira in Brazil's Amazon. President Jair Bolsonaro has long pushed to open indigenous reserves for agriculture and mining, saying it will benefit the people there. He insists Brazil’s indigenous people, “want to integrate, they want electricity, they want to be what we are.” (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
n this time exposure, stars fill the sky over Bau village located on Kayapo indigenous territory in Altamira in Brazil's Amazon, Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. Fires are burning very close to Kayapo indigenous land located on the Bau indigenous reserve. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A man from the Kayapo indigenous community checks his smartphone at night in Bau village located on Kayapo indigenous territory in Altamira in Brazil’s Amazon, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019. Forest fires are burning very close to Kayapo indigenous land located on the Bau indigenous reserve. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
In this Aug. 27, 2019 photo, members of the Kayapo indigenous group attend a meeting to discuss community issues in their village Bau, located on Kayapo indigenous territory in Altamira in Brazil’s Amazon. About 98% of all Brazil’s indigenous lands lie within the Amazon. “Just outside, our reserve is being heavily deforested. It’s being badly destroyed,” a Kayapo leader said. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A herd of cattle stand in the midst of smoke from the fires at the Nova Fronteira region in Novo Progresso, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sent the military to help extinguish some fires. Last week, he passed a decree banning most fires for land-clearing for a period of 60 days, although he later limited the ban to the Amazon. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Brazilian soldier fights fires at the Nova Fronteira region in Novo Progresso, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sent the military to help extinguish some fires. Last week, he passed a decree banning most fires for land-clearing for a period of 60 days, although he later limited the ban to the Amazon. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A dead capybara lays on the side of the highway in Altamira, Para state, one of the states affected by the blazes that in the last weeks have been hitting the Amazon region of Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
In this Aug. 27, 2019 photo, Wakonkra Kayapo of the Kayapo indigenous community, rifle in tow, indicates the way on the Curua River as he searches for suspected prospectors and loggers in the Bau indigenous reserve in Altamira, in Brazil's Amazon, where fires burn nearby. "The forest will stay in its place. It can't be taken down. We take care of the land", said the 68-year-old man who describes himself as a "small warrior." (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Fire consumes the Amazon rainforest in Altamira, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019. Fires across the Brazilian Amazon have sparked an international outcry for preservation of the world's largest rainforest. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Smoke rises from several burning fires in Altamira, Para state, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he has accepted four planes from Chile to help fight Amazon fires, and he accused the French president of portraying himself as "the one and only person" concerned about the environment. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Fire consumes an area in the Alvorada da Amazonia region, in Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. The country's satellite monitoring agency has recorded more than 41,000 fires in the Amazon region so far this year, with more than half of those coming in August alone. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Brazilians soldier fight fires at the Nova Fronteira region in Novo Progresso, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sent the military to help extinguish some fires. Last week, he passed a decree banning most fires for land-clearing for a period of 60 days, although he later limited the ban to the Amazon. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A burned area of Amazon rainforest is seen in the Biological Reserve Serra do Cachimbo, at the border with the Menkragnoti indigenous reserve of the Kayapo indigenous group in Altamira, Para state, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Land smolders during a forest fire in Altamira in Brazil's Amazon, Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. The fire is very close to Kayapo indigenous land located on the Bau indigenous reserve. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Brazilian soldier puts out fires at the Nova Fronteira region in Novo Progresso, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sent the military to help extinguish some fires. Last week, he passed a decree banning most fires for land-clearing for a period of 60 days, although he later limited the ban to the Amazon. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)