Wildfires that devastated more than 30 million hectares of land in the country last year were largely caused by criminal activities. This is according to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), which has issued fines to hundreds of people. "Ibama identified and is punishing 242 people for these large-scale wildfires in 2024. Other cases are still under analysis. These 242 include fines and other administrative measures totaling over R$ 460 million," said the director of Environmental Protection at the agency, Jair Schmitt, at a press conference on Thursday (8) to present data on deforestation and wildfires in the first months of 2025. "One of the actions we are taking to prevent this is identifying areas with higher risk of these fires and sending electronic notifications, notifications by edict, to the owners to adopt measures and know that Ibama is monitoring," he added. The environmental agency also reported that it is maintaining and expanding the presence of patrol teams in the most critical areas. Extreme drought The volume of wildfires last year exceeded the size of the territory burned in the previous year by 79%, equivalent to an area the size of Italy, according to MapBiomas. The situation was exacerbated, in the assessment of government officials, by the extreme drought that affected the country, especially in the North region. "It has been two consecutive years of severe drought in the Amazon. This has to do with the effects of climate change, El Niño with the warming of the North Atlantic, drought in the Amazon, the forest becomes more vulnerable, and then the fires were of much greater magnitude," explained the extraordinary secretary for Deforestation Control and Territorial Environmental Order of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, André Lima. Reduction In the data for 2025, according to the secretary, there is a reduction of up to 70% in the number of hotspots in the Amazon, between January and April, and a drop of over 90% in the number of hotspots in the Pantanal, the two most affected biomes in recent years. Despite the more favorable climate situation, the government has observed an increase in deforestation rates in both the Amazon and the Cerrado in the last month of April, which has raised an alert for the adoption of measures that can reverse the scenario, which is still one of reduction in accumulated indicators.
https://jornaldebrasilia.com.br/noticias/politica-e-poder/ibama-multa-242-pessoas-por-incendios-criminosos-em-2024/