Brazil: drought and fire destroy the Pantanal Wetlands

DW (English)

The Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland in the world. It should be green and full of water at this time of year. Instead, there has been a drought for months and huge wildfires are devastating large areas. Why is this happening?

Transcript

00:00It may not look like it, but this is the world's largest tropical wetland.

00:05Usually green and lush at this time of year, large parts of the Pantanal in

00:10Brazil have been reduced to ashes.

00:11After months of drought, this dried vegetation has turned into the perfect

00:16fuel for wildfires.

00:18It's normal for the Pantanal to have rainy periods where the wetland floods

00:22and dry periods where blazes spread, but this year the wildfires started

00:26earlier and with much more fury.

00:29Firefighter José Francisco Mourão says it's one of the worst dry periods in his

00:33career.

00:34The Pantanal urgently needs rain, otherwise we're going to see one of the

00:39worst droughts ever and we'll have to fight a lot more wildfires.

00:44Hundreds of firefighters are working hard to contain the situation.

00:49Some even came from other parts of Brazil and neighboring Bolivia.

00:52They don't want a repeat of 2020.

00:55Back then about a third of the Pantanal's vegetation burned down, 17 million

00:59vertebrate animals were killed and many more injured.

01:03But the first half of 2024 is off to a bad start.

01:07There were many more blazes than in the same period last year.

01:11To prevent the flames from spreading, the firefighters cut a swath through the

01:15undergrowth.

01:16But much of the ground is peat, meaning fires can continue for days under

01:21their feet unnoticed.

01:24And at the same time, they have to fight strong winds.

01:28Today the wind already turned around 180 degrees, so we're fighting hard.

01:33Soon the wind will change again and every time it changes we need a different

01:38strategy.

01:42These fires are largely started by people, burning trash, clearing undergrowth

01:47and even smoking cigarettes.

01:50Usually they would be naturally contained by the flooded areas this time of year.

01:54But there are several factors that have been making the wetland flammable

01:58unseasonably early.

02:00One is a natural phenomenon, El Nino.

02:02The water in the Pacific is unusually warm as a result, with dramatic

02:07consequences in many regions.

02:09In the Pantanal it made conditions hotter and drier.

02:12Then there are the effects of human-made climate change, which are also making

02:16the Pantanal more vulnerable to drought.

02:19And increasing rampant deforestation in Brazil is having an even more dramatic

02:24effect.

02:26The Pantanal is suffering from a lack of water because there is less rain coming

02:30from the Amazon due to deforestation there.

02:33And there is less water in the rivers because of deforestation in the Cerrado

02:37region.

02:41The water for the Pantanal actually comes from the Amazon rainforest.

02:46Some of the water that evaporates there normally drifts south in cloud form over

02:50the Cerrado bush savanna to the Pantanal, where it then rains.

02:54But as large areas of the Amazon get deforested, there are fewer trees to

02:59recycle water into the air.

03:01The landscape is drying out.

03:03The winds continue blowing, but they take a smaller quantity of humidity with

03:08them.

03:09And that reduces the volume of rain generated in other regions.

03:12That puts the Pantanal at a disadvantage.

03:18In addition to the Amazon rainforest, the trees of the Cerrado are also vital for

03:22the survival of the Pantanal.

03:25Their roots store the rain and slowly release it into the rivers that flow into

03:29the Pantanal.

03:30If the trees disappear there too, it'll have an impact on rivers such as the

03:35Rio Paraguay, an important tributary.

03:38At the moment, it's about two meters too low, but just high enough to protect

03:42Zilda dos Santos's land from the fire.

03:45Look how it burned on the other side.

03:47The fire reached the shore of the river.

03:49I didn't come close because it made me nervous, but I heard the crackling.

03:55Even though she is safe now, she's having a hard time staying optimistic.

04:00Because over the years, she's had to watch her land become drier and drier as

04:04ever bigger fires consume this unique landscape.

04:09A long time ago, my grandfather told me, I won't live to see it, but you will.

04:14The world will end in fire, and that's what I'm seeing now.

04:20I'm 54 years old, and now everything is burning.

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