Davi Vittorazzi — From Cenarium Magazine
CUIABÁ (MT) — Data from a reference satellite adopted by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), analyzed by the Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV), show that Mato Grosso had, from January to April this year, 4,131 hot spots. Most of these occurrences, 67%, were recorded in the Mato Grosso Amazon.
In the other two biomes that make up the State, 1,099 outbreaks were recorded in the Cerrado (26.6%) and 251 in the Pantanal (6.1%). The more than 4 thousand hot spots detected in Mato Grosso places this beginning of the year as the one with the highest number of hot spots detected in this period in the entire historical series of hot spots, since 1999.
The number of hot spots in these first four months also places Mato Grosso in second place in the ranking of states with the highest number of hot spots detected in the country that year, behind only Roraima, which had so far had 4,609 hot spots.
In April alone, there were 797 hot spots across the state. Even with the considerable volume of rain that fell on the state in the last month, the number of outbreaks is above the historical average (617 outbreaks) and also above previous years: 631, 526 and 644, in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Cities with the highest records
The municipalities with the highest records were Nova Maringá 258 (6.2%), Brasnorte 249 (6%), Cáceres 233 (5.6%), Nova Ubiratã 135 (3.3%), Nova Mutum 133 (3.2 %), Gaúcha do Norte 131 (3.2%), Paranatinga 131 (3.2%), Querência 130 (3.1%), Feliz Natal 128 (3.1%) and São Félix do Araguaia 109 (2, 6%). Eight of the 10 municipalities with the highest occurrence of outbreaks are located in the Amazon.
In relation to the places where they were registered, in land categories, the ICV analysis shows that 3,715 registrations are in private rural properties (89.9%), 169 in unregistered areas (4.1%), 87 in settlements (2, 1%), 73 in indigenous lands (1.8%), 66 in conservation units (1.6%) and 21 in urbanized areas (0.5%).
Adding the hot spots in private rural properties and unregistered areas, the percentage of hot spots this year reaches 94%. At these points, the use of fire in association with agricultural practices is common, whether to “clean up” recently deforested areas or to weaken native vegetation with a view to deforestation.
Controlled burning is permitted at this time of year, subject to authorization from the State Department of the Environment (Sema-MT). Despite this, the ICV shows that only 7.8% of outbreaks occurred authorized.
The prohibitive period for the use of fire was defined by the State this year for the Amazon and Cerrado from July 1st to November 30th. While in the Pantanal from July 1st to December 31st.
Read more: Calendar defines areas in environmental emergency due to forest fires
Edited by Aldizangela Brito
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