June 29, 2022

09:06

Priscilla Peixoto – Amazon Agency

MANAUS – For the second time, the State of Acre will be included in the task force to fight forest fires and burnings of the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety. The work of “Operation Biome Guardians” consists in monitoring and carrying out effective actions in places where there are large outbreaks of fire and investigate crimes related to the agenda.

Up to June 26th of this year, 112 fires were identified in the state of Acre, 27 more than in the previous year, when 85 fires were registered in the region. The data are from the Burning Program of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe).

More States

Besides the Amazon region, the operation will cover the Pantanal, Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Caatinga. As well as Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Rondônia, Roraima, Pará, Piauí, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Espírito do Santo, Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás and Tocantins will be the focus of the initiative.

According to the ministry, the task force will continue until January 2023. Around 6,000 security agents will work in the task force estimated to cost more than R$75 million.

Burning and deforestation

Also according to Inpe, the legal Amazon region showed a 12% increase from 2021 to 2022, with 11,914 fires. In this same period last year 10,554 cases were registered. In addition to the fires, on June 17, a survey conducted by the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon) indicated that, in May of this year alone, 40 kilometers of forest in Acre were devastated.

The data is equivalent to an increase of a little more than 15% in relation to the deforestation in the region in April, when the total destruction reached 11 square kilometers. Of the total 1,476 kilometers of the area deforested in the Legal Amazon in May, 3% was in the state of Acre.

From August 2021 to May this year, Acre reached 480 square kilometers of deforestation, 9% less than the period from August 2020 to May 2021, when the region reached 528 square kilometers of devastation. Leading the list of states with the highest deforestation rates in May are Amazonas, with 38%, Pará, with 32%, Mato Grosso, with 13%, followed by Rondônia with 12%.