National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The root causes of Amazonia fires

About the Talk Brazilian Amazon fires got the world's attention in 2019 when a thick smoke plume covered São Paulo and made a day become a night. Amazon fires continued to increase in the 2020 fire season, raising awareness on the root causes of fires in years where the climatic conditions were not extremely dry. The alarming increase in fire activities in the Amazon, in the past two years, was a reflection of Brazil's political situation, with attacks on environmental laws and weakened environmental institutions. The results of this weakened governance were of greater impact to Amazon forest, causing higher rates of deforestation and degradation, and an increase in illegal activities, mainly land grabbing and logging. The understanding of where and what burned is fundamental to determine what have to be done and who to blame in order to avoid a similar fire scenario in 2021.

About the Speaker Ane Alencar is a geographer with a Master's degree in Environmental Remote Sensing and GIS from Boston University and PhD in Forest Resources and Conservation from University of Florida. For the past 25 years she has been working on conservation related issues at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). She is currently the Science Director at IPAM and the fire science specialist of the institute. Her work experience includes improving understanding of spatial patterns and extent of fire, deforestation and land use changes in Brazilian Amazon promoted by road infra-structure and climate change. She is also part of the team of biome coordinators of Mapbiomas initiative coordinating the land use change monitoring efforts of Cerrado Biome and fire scar mapping in Brazil, and the coordinator of the Land use and cover change GHG emissions sector of the SEEG initiative.

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