September 18, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

Since the middle of July, fires in west-central Brazil have burnt the world’s largest tropical wetlands and one of the most biologically diverse habitats on earth, the Pantanal, at an unprecedented scale. The blazes in Brazil have scorched a record-setting 10% of the Pantanal, an area that is larger than New York City.

The Pantanal, namely swamp in the Portuguese language, spreading out more than 150,000 square kilometers in Brazil and extends into neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay. In South America, it situates between the rainforest, Brazil’s grasslands, and Paraguay’s dry forests. Moreover, the Pantanal serves as home to more than 1,200 vertebrate animal species.

The blazes are often intentionally set by farmers and ranchers to cultivate the land, but exacerbated by unusually dry conditions in recent months. Up to now hundreds of environmental workers, firefighters, park rangers, and soldiers have been working day and night for weeks trying to extinguish flames in the Pantanal.

Photo:Webshot.