The Secretary of Deforestation Control and Territorial Environmental Planning at the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, André Lima, said that there is a political connotation in some of the forest fires that have occurred in the Amazon in recent days.
Lima was interviewed this Sunday (22) on Living Nature Programpresented by journalist Mara Régia and produced by National Radioa broadcaster of Brazilian Communications Company (EBC).
According to the secretary, the fires in the region this year were aggravated by atypical climate phenomena and the criminal action of people acting with “political connotations”, in response to the measures adopted by the current government to combat illegal deforestation in the country.
“There are even fires that we imagine could have political connotations. It is a reaction from a part of society that does not accept it, that does not see itself as being within the scope of sustainability,” he stated.
The secretary also said that the country is experiencing an atypical drought due to global climate change, such as the warming of the Atlantic Ocean, which was a less intense phenomenon in previous years.
Last week, Brasília woke up covered in smoke caused by the fire in the National Park. Photo: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/ Brazil Agency
According to Lima, the intensification of deforestation in the Cerrado and the Amazon also worsened the situation, reducing air humidity and delaying the rainy season.
“It’s one thing to predict a dry year. It’s another thing to predict an extremely dry year. This is the worst year of drought in the last 60 years in the Amazon, at the level we’re seeing, not only low humidity, practically zero rain and high heat. These are three elements simultaneously acting on the Amazon, at a time when it shouldn’t be like this anymore,” he said.
The secretary also made an appeal to Amazon residents to avoid burning garbage during this dry season.
“There’s this whole criminal agenda. Let’s say that half of the problem is arson, from people who are deliberately benefiting from land occupation. Another part is from people who are using fire because they need to burn a field and don’t have a tractor, or who are burning trash on the side of the road because there is no basic sanitation,” he added.
THE Living Nature Program airs every Sunday at 9am on National Radio of the Amazon and in National AM Radio of Brasilia.
