(Rio de Janeiro) The largest wetland on the planet, the Pantanal, a biodiversity sanctuary in the south of the Amazon, is plagued by fires even before the start of the dry season, the record number of outbreaks for the month of June having already been pulverized.

Since the start of the month, 1,729 outbreaks have been identified by satellite in the area, according to data published Friday by the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE).

This is almost four times more than the previous record for an entire month of June, which dates back to 2005, when 435 outbreaks were counted.

“This increase in fires in the Pantanal even before the dry season is extremely worrying,” said Claudio Angelo, member of the Climate Observatory NGO collective, to AFP.  

From January 1 to June 20, INPE recorded 2,628 outbreaks in the Pantanal, an increase of 1,818 percent compared to the same period last year.

This figure is also higher than that of the first half of 2020 (2534), which turned out to be the worst year on record, when 30% of the region’s surface was reached by flames.

The dry season usually begins in the second half of the year. In 2020, a peak was reached in September, with 8,106 outbreaks, the most devastating month since the INPE began compiling this data in 1998.

The Pantanal, which also extends into Bolivia and Paraguay, is the largest tropical wetland on the planet.

This biodiversity sanctuary attracts many tourists who can admire caimans, giant otters, colorful birds and, for the lucky ones, jaguars up close.

The Brazilian Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, has spoken several times in recent weeks of the risks of “severe” drought in several regions of the country, particularly in the Pantanal.

Brazil was already hit by an unprecedented weather disaster last month, when floods caused by torrential rains killed more than 170 people in the south of the country.

“After the heavy rains we will have drought, probably in the Amazon and the Pantanal […]”, declared the minister on June 5, on the occasion of World Environment Day.

Extreme events that she attributed to the “combination of weather phenomena like El Niño and the intensification of climate change”.