2024-09-03 18:00:00
Surrounded by forests, the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in the northwest of the Amazon, is in one of the most conserved regions in the Amazon. However, even around 800 km from Manaus, the region – one of the most indigenous in the country – has been affected by smoke from fires, both in the urban area and in the indigenous territory. Residents even caught the smoke from the fog that sometimes covers the forest.
On August 27, there was a lot of smoke during the day and Serra do Curicuriari or Sleeping Beauty was covered – one of the postcards of the city. The same situation was repeated for at least the next two days.
Serra do Curicuriari, or “Sleeping Beauty”, June 23, 2010|Beto Ricardo/ISA
Postcard landscape covered in smoke on August 27, 2024 | Ana Amélia Hamdan/ISA
Member of the Wayuri Network of Indigenous Communication of Rio Negro, João Alex Lins, from the Yanomami people, showed video images that record smoke in the community of Maturacá, in the Yanomami Territory of Amazonas. The mountains that surround the community and are part of the sacred landscape were engulfed in smoke.
“Hello everyone, August 27, 2024. Once again the smoke came here in our Maturacá region, Yanomami Indigenous Land. Our forest is already covered in smoke, our mountains are gone”, he reports in the video. In mid-August, he had already released another video talking about the issue of smoke.
The resident of Açaí-Paraná, on the Lower Uaupés River, Rosivaldo Miranda, from the Piratapuya people, reported that in addition to the smoke, the indigenous people are already noticing the rise in temperature, which raises the alarm for the period dry
“The smoke is affecting us here too. You can’t even see the other side of the river because there is so much smoke. The heat is already very high, it is increasing. And the river is now falling heavily. We also have the appearance of the sandbank in the Lower Uaupés River. So it is expected that this year we will have a drought again. And we must be prepared for these impacts from now on. And be safe. The drought is coming, climate change is coming”, he said.
The health issue also raises concerns among residents. Some people have reported breathing difficulties. The Wayuri Network of Indigenous Communicators posted a video on their Instagram demanding strict supervision by the authorities against those who cause the fires.
São Gabriel da Cachoeira beach covered in smoke from fires. People complain of difficulty breathing |Ana Amélia Hamnda/ISA
Data from the TerraBrasilis portal, from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), shows that fire outbreaks in the Amazon biome in August of this year already reached 27,181 by the 26th, compared to 17,373 in August of last year. In other words, even before the end of the month, an increase of 56.4% was recorded in the comparison between those periods.
In Amazonas, this month of August, until the 26, there were 7,789 fires. Last year, in the whole month of August, there were 5,474, which means a jump of 42%.
In the Upper Rio Negro, the dry period is starting. In this region, the dry season runs from August to March, with the drought historically reaching its peak between January and February – in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, the record was reached in February 1992, when the Rio Negro reached 330 cm.
A hydrological bulletin released on August 23 by the Geological Survey of Brazil – Mineral Resources Research Company (SGB-CPRM) showed that the Rio Negro fell a daily average of 8 cm in São Gabriel da Cachoeira. The Rio Negro in Manaus showed more significant drops, about 20 cm per day.
On August 8, the level of the Rio Negro in São Gabriel da Cachoeira was at 876cm. On August 4, 2023, the year in which extreme drought was recorded, it was 1,025cm.
State of emergency
On August 28, the government of Amazonas declared an emergency in 62 municipalities of the state due to drought.
Anthropologist Aloisio Cabalzar, analyst and researcher at the Rio Negro Program at the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), explains that the region is affected by the fires that occur in the Pantanal, Rondonia, Acre and southern Amazonas and the Department of Santa Cruz in Bolivia. , where it comes from the smoke that came to the region brought by the wind. “This has happened several times and has happened many times in São Gabriel da Cachoeira”, he considered.
Aloisio Cabalzar emphasizes that there are few fires in the region and that they are small-scale, generally intentional, in areas that have been cleared for new traditional parks for local indigenous communities and do not contribute to that effect.
Passing through São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Indigenous Environmental Management Agent (Aima) Genilton da Silva Apolinário, from the Baniwa people, was preparing to return to his community, Tunuí Cachoeira, on the Içana River, on the 27th, and expressed concern under the smoke. situation. According to him, the smoke did not reach the region with the same intensity as in the city, but it is a warning, especially because of the work he does to manage bees in honey production.
“Where there is smoke, bees have difficulty breathing the air inside the hive. This worries us, those of us who manage the bees, right? Because bees are people, right? They are communities. So if something happens to us, it will also hurt them in the same way,” he explained.
According to his observations, phenomena such as hot weather, heavy rain and even snow storms are becoming more and more frequent. For him and his family, every time the smoke appears, it is like a warning: “I know something will happen after this smoke that is happening here. I don’t know if the river will also dry up, if there will be snow storms or a lot of lightning, but it is a warning”, said Genilton Apolinário.
#Drought #coming #climate #change #coming #smoke #affects #indigenous #territory #Alto #Rio #Negro