Fires Die Down in the Amazon, But Rage Elsewhere in Brazil
- Pantanal biome has only seen one-third of 2020’s record fires
- Uncontrolled flames raging at record levels in caatinga
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Brazil’s caatinga, a desert-like biome in the country’s Northeast, is suffering from its most severe blazes since 2003 as fires that ravaged the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetland in the last two years fade.
The Amazon is on pace to record about half as many fire points this month than it did in September of last year, while the Pantanal is set to register about one third, according to daily data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. In 2019 and 2020, images of burning trees, wounded jaguars and charred alligators caught up in fires in both regions put Brazil’s environmental policies in the spotlight.