Forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon

COCHRANE, M.; SCHULZE, M. Forest Fires in the Brazilian Amazon. Conservation Biology, v. 12, n. 5, p. 948-950, 1998.

Introduction

Uncontrolled fires are an underestimated and underreported disturbance in the Amazon basin. Although there are many statistics regarding the amount of forest cleared annually, there is little appreciation of the effects of the many fires that escape agricultural plots and pastures. Each year, thousands of square kilometers of Amazonian forests are burned by accidental forest fires, regardless of El Niño events. As early as 1988, a single fire burned over 1000 km2 of selectively logged forest near Paragominas (Lefebvre & Stone 1994). In both Mata Grosso and southern Pará, the area of standing forest affected by accidental forest fires exceeded the area of new deforestation in 1995 (Alencar et al. 1997). These fires don’t even make the local news.