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MFI1Fires (Hot Spots)in AmazoniaFIRES (HOT SPOTS)Fire forms part of the slash-burn model of agriculture practiced for millennia in Amazonia byindigenous peoples and more recently by other local populations that have settled there. Over thelast 50 years fire has been used on a larger scale, very often associated with deforestation, in order toconvert extensive areas of Amazonian forest into farm landscapes (MFI1). The use of fire as the “mostefficient and cheapest tool” for eliminating forest cover has transformed millions of hectares into newAmazonian ecosystems completely different from their original condition.With climate change generating extreme events in Amazonia, such as the 2005 drought, theconditions have been favorable for large-scale forest fires, such as those reported in Brasil and Bolivia(Marengo et al., 2008). Uncontrolled forest and ground fires may be responsible for a large proportionof greenhouse gas emissions in Amazonia.ContextFires, increasingly common and more intense in the region, are not limited just to the infamous‘arc of deforestation’ of Brasil and Bolivia. New fires have been occurring in more remote areas andwithin Protected Natural Areas (PNAs). Indigenous and traditional communities, including some whoinhabit regions far from the colonization frontiers, have denounced problems in controlling fires and illustratethe need to develop procedures for adapting to the climate changes under way. One exampleof this is the case of the Xingu Indigenous Park (MT, Brasil), an island of forest surrounded by the deforestationproduced over the last 20 years by farming activities, where 16 ethnic groups live in more than50 different communities. In 2009 an experimental process was begun to mobilize twelve communities,belonging to seven ethnic groups, to create new forms of managing and fighting fire (see BFI1: TheXingu Indigenous Park on the fire path).Scientists monitoring and studying the dynamic of deforestation and degradation in Amazoniaagree that a number of interrelated factors exists that increases the forest’s vulnerability to fire (Fearnside,2005). The main factors described include: 1) the advance of farming in Bolivian and BrazilianAmazonia close to areas of cerrado and dry transition forests, which are already naturally more proneto fire propagation (Laurance et al., 2001; Steininger et al., 2001); 2) the degradation of forest areasthrough selective logging, which increases sunlight and wind penetration, lowering the relative humidityof the forest (Nepstad et al., 2004), which explains the particular vulnerability to fire of illegal loggingzones (Veríssimo et al., 1992); 3) the severity and duration of the dry season, worsened by the firesthemselves, which curb cloud formation and delay the onset of the rainy season (Laurance et al., 2002);and 4) the fact that trees in Amazonia are not adapted to fire, which means that after the first fire hasburnt, the volume of material susceptible to burning and aridity increases, significantly augmenting theintensity of subsequent fires (Cochrane, 2003).The immediate and most evident consequences of the increase in fires are the loss of diversityin wildlife and plant life, air pollution and the consequent impact on human health, the increase in greenhousegas emissions and the reduction in local rainfall due to the smoke.Recent estimates indicate that the combination of deforestation and climate change may leadto a 50% increase in the occurrence of fires in Amazonia by 2050 (Silvestrini et al., 2011), intensifyingforest degradation and impoverishment.Burning to convert forest into cattle pasture. São Félix do Xingu, Pará, Brasil.© Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace, 2008 Fire, used in traditional agriculture, is no longer restrictedto marginal areas; it is advancing deep into Amazonia The highest number of forest fires were recordedduring the years 2002, 2004 and 2005 The southeastern portion of Amazonia, known as theArc of Deforestation (Brasil and Bolivia) is the regionwith the highest number of recorded forest fires The 10 indigenous territories most heavily affected by fireduring the period 2000-2010 are located in Bolivia and Brasil The traditional forms of managing fire used byindigenous peoples will have to adapt to climate change¾Ä¸MethodologyRAISG 44Georeferenced information on ”hot spots” in Amazonia for the 2000-2010 period was obtainedfrom Brasil’s National Space Research Institute (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais do Brasil:INPE), taking into account: (i) the recorded date of hotspots, and (ii) the type of sensor used. Only datafrom the NOAA-12 (from 01/01/2000 to 09/08/2007) and NOAA-15 (from 10/08/2007 to 31/12/2010)satellites were used. For these satellites a hotspot appears as a 1 km² area of high temperature, whichmay represent the occurrence of a single small fire, several small fires or a larger fire. These satellitescannot detect fires that occur on the ground under the tree cover. To facilitate analysis, the data wasAmazonia under Pressure – FiresFiresYoung man from the Waurá indigenous peoples training to put out fires inside the Xingu Indigenous Park.Mato Grosso, Brasil. © Rogério Assis, 2011Cartographic sources for the theme Fires (Hot Spots): • Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais de Brasil (INPE), 2011 (http://www.dpi.inpe.br/proarco/bdqueimadas/). Ocean and relieve: World Physical Map,U.S. National Park Service,in ArcGIS Online Services.Ä In 2010 the number of forest fires in theXingu Indigenous Park reached 884, almostfour times as high as 2007, the previousrecord-high year for fires.¾ Guyane Française was proportionallythe country with the highest number offorest fires in protected areas duringthe period 2000-2010 (44.7%).¸ In the arc of deforestation in Brasil,most of the forest fires are recordedin areas of Cerrado, dry forests ortransition zones.– Amazonia under Pressure 45 RAISG