Fire season has arrived. Are you ready?

The first entry on the calendar for the month of June indicates: Environment Week. June 5th is recognized worldwide as the date of the celebration, but many use the entire week to deal with the theme. This year, it is worth adding an additional and urgent concern to the debates: the increasing risk of forest fires.

This is a seasonal problem, but this year, specifically, it deserves an exceptional warning. The fire season started much earlier than expected and the prospects are for a year with even greater risks in several regions of Brazil. With the rainy season ending with rainfall levels below the historical average, we will be experiencing a critical moment, the third consecutive year of prolonged droughts.

The situation requires increased attention and the urgent adoption of prevention and preparation measures to combat the fire. At Brigada Aliança, one of the most qualified forest fire prevention and combat teams in Brazil, for example, until a few years ago, firefighting only began in August. However, in recent years, these fires are starting earlier and earlier. Last year, of the 152 fires eliminated by Brigada Aliança, 20 were fought in the month of July. In 2022 these fires started even earlier, in the month of May there were eight fights, some of medium proportions – five in the state of Goiás and three in the transition zone between Cerrado and Pantanal in the region of Pedra Preta (MT).

This is just a foreshadowing of what awaits us in a season that should be long and could last until November, when the rains are expected to increase again. And we can't say it will be a surprise. In the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, for example, 33 municipalities declared a state of emergency due to droughts in February, when they should have been in the middle of the rainy season. Actions like this are normally only taken at the beginning of the dry period, in the second half of the year, but the realization that rainfall levels were and would continue to be insufficient led them to bring the measure forward. More recently, a new alert came from the drought monitor of the National Water Agency (ANA), which detected an increase in severe and extreme droughts in the Center-West and Southeast regions. Even though some areas had a large volume of rain, it was poorly distributed and concentrated in some points.

As a result, they were not enough to have a positive impact on water stocks. Instead, they washed nutrients from the soil and helped the grass grow, increasing the biomass that usually serves as fuel for fires. With three consecutive years of drought, the landscape becomes more flammable with the accumulation of dead trees and dry grass.

If we want to work less on fighting fires, we need to work more on prevention. Rural producers need to know the risk factors on rural properties and act before fires actually begin to threaten reserves, production and farm infrastructure.

It is also necessary to be alert to the approaching prohibitive periods for the use of fire on properties. Decrees suspending permission to use fire vary between states, but some of them, such as Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, have already anticipated. In Mato Grosso, the use of fire for cleaning and managing areas was established between July 1st and October 30th. In the southern neighbor, a “State of Environmental Emergency” was declared between the months of May and December.

Preference should be given to the use of machinery for actions such as opening firebreaks and cleaning areas. But if you are going to use fire to carry out black breaks and prescribed burns, now is the time. This can be done, as long as it is authorized by the responsible public body and has specialized technical support, so as not to run the risk of the use of fire not turning into a fire, especially considering the scenario that is already favorable to spread.

We are experiencing the imminence of a new crop of sad images of large burned areas. Brigada Aliança reinforced its teams in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, with more Fire Warriors and equipment, invested in engaging the local population, in prevention actions and is training volunteers and other partners in the regions where it operates. Unfortunately, many of the country's critical areas remain with little or no qualified and equipped personnel to deal with forest fires. We need to go further, investing in more public and private combat structures. Environment Week should be the milestone for raising awareness that the situation is critical, but that we can act. And it has to be now.