The Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland in the world. It should be green and full of water at this time of year. Instead, there has been a drought for months and huge wildfires are devastating large areas. Why is this happening?
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00:00It may not look like it, but this is the world's largest tropical wetland.
00:05Usually green and lush at this time of year, large parts of the Pantanal in
00:10Brazil have been reduced to ashes.
00:11After months of drought, this dried vegetation has turned into the perfect
00:16fuel for wildfires.
00:18It's normal for the Pantanal to have rainy periods where the wetland floods
00:22and dry periods where blazes spread, but this year the wildfires started
00:26earlier and with much more fury.
00:29Firefighter José Francisco Mourão says it's one of the worst dry periods in his
00:33career.
00:34The Pantanal urgently needs rain, otherwise we're going to see one of the
00:39worst droughts ever and we'll have to fight a lot more wildfires.
00:44Hundreds of firefighters are working hard to contain the situation.
00:49Some even came from other parts of Brazil and neighboring Bolivia.
00:52They don't want a repeat of 2020.
00:55Back then about a third of the Pantanal's vegetation burned down, 17 million
00:59vertebrate animals were killed and many more injured.
01:03But the first half of 2024 is off to a bad start.
01:07There were many more blazes than in the same period last year.
01:11To prevent the flames from spreading, the firefighters cut a swath through the
01:15undergrowth.
01:16But much of the ground is peat, meaning fires can continue for days under
01:21their feet unnoticed.
01:24And at the same time, they have to fight strong winds.
01:28Today the wind already turned around 180 degrees, so we're fighting hard.
01:33Soon the wind will change again and every time it changes we need a different
01:38strategy.
01:42These fires are largely started by people, burning trash, clearing undergrowth
01:47and even smoking cigarettes.
01:50Usually they would be naturally contained by the flooded areas this time of year.
01:54But there are several factors that have been making the wetland flammable
01:58unseasonably early.
02:00One is a natural phenomenon, El Nino.
02:02The water in the Pacific is unusually warm as a result, with dramatic
02:07consequences in many regions.
02:09In the Pantanal it made conditions hotter and drier.
02:12Then there are the effects of human-made climate change, which are also making
02:16the Pantanal more vulnerable to drought.
02:19And increasing rampant deforestation in Brazil is having an even more dramatic
02:24effect.
02:26The Pantanal is suffering from a lack of water because there is less rain coming
02:30from the Amazon due to deforestation there.
02:33And there is less water in the rivers because of deforestation in the Cerrado
02:37region.
02:41The water for the Pantanal actually comes from the Amazon rainforest.
02:46Some of the water that evaporates there normally drifts south in cloud form over
02:50the Cerrado bush savanna to the Pantanal, where it then rains.
02:54But as large areas of the Amazon get deforested, there are fewer trees to
02:59recycle water into the air.
03:01The landscape is drying out.
03:03The winds continue blowing, but they take a smaller quantity of humidity with
03:08them.
03:09And that reduces the volume of rain generated in other regions.
03:12That puts the Pantanal at a disadvantage.
03:18In addition to the Amazon rainforest, the trees of the Cerrado are also vital for
03:22the survival of the Pantanal.
03:25Their roots store the rain and slowly release it into the rivers that flow into
03:29the Pantanal.
03:30If the trees disappear there too, it'll have an impact on rivers such as the
03:35Rio Paraguay, an important tributary.
03:38At the moment, it's about two meters too low, but just high enough to protect
03:42Zilda dos Santos's land from the fire.
03:45Look how it burned on the other side.
03:47The fire reached the shore of the river.
03:49I didn't come close because it made me nervous, but I heard the crackling.
03:55Even though she is safe now, she's having a hard time staying optimistic.
04:00Because over the years, she's had to watch her land become drier and drier as
04:04ever bigger fires consume this unique landscape.
04:09A long time ago, my grandfather told me, I won't live to see it, but you will.
04:14The world will end in fire, and that's what I'm seeing now.
04:20I'm 54 years old, and now everything is burning.