Fires on Yanomami lands drop 62% from 2022

The number of fires reported in the Yanomami indigenous territory, in the northern state of Roraima, was down 62 percent in January and February this year from the same time span last year.

In the first two months of 2022, the total number of wildfires registered in the reserve covered 557 hectares. In the first two months this year, fires reached 211 hectares of the territory.

The data can be found on Monitor do Fogo (“Fire Monitor”), which gauges the effects of forest fires through satellite images countrywide. They were published Wednesday (Mar. 15) by MapBiomas in partnership with Amazon research institute Ipam.

The reduction is believed to be linked to the operation aimed at restoring government presence in the indigenous territory following the international ripples of the humanitarian crisis assailing the Yanomami people, said IPAM Science Director Ane Alencar.

“Even though Roraima was the [state] that burned the most in the period, a particularly significant decline was observed in the Yanomami territory. This change can be thought of as stemming from the return of the government in the region, a management restored for the enforcement of the law,” she declared.