Brazil's development bank Bndes will allocate R150mn ($27mn) from its Amazon Fund to combat fires in the tropical savanna Cerrado and tropical wetlands Pantanal biomes.
The environment and justice ministries, along with other government departments, approved a project to support fire management and response in biomes other than the northern Amazon rainforest. Brazil has scorched an area greater than the size of Italy in 2024, up by 79pc from the prior year, according to environmental network MapBiomas' fire monitor.
Wildfires spread over 9.7mn hectares (ha) in the Cerrado and over 1.9mn ha in Pantanal last year, while the Amazon lost 17.6mn ha to fires in the same period. Bndes' president Aloizio Mercadante called that a "critical and atypical scenario." (see graph). In 2023-24, fires spread the most through August-September due to an extended drought season, according to MapBiomas.
The funding will support fire departments and forest brigades in central-western Mato Grosso do Sul and Goias, southeastern Minas Gerais, and northeastern Bahia and Piaui states, as well as in the federal district. Brazil will invest resources in new equipment, vehicles and other devices to combat wildfires, the bank said.
In mid-July, the US Trade Representative launched an investigation to determine if Brazil's illegal deforestation undermines the competitiveness of US timber and agricultural industries.
