Brazil’s Pantanal, the World’s Largest Tropical Wetland, Is Burning Out of Control

Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland area, is burning. It is one of the most biodiverse places in the world, and the fires raging through it are devastating.

According to reports, nearly 2 million acres have been torched as the fires race through the area. It is the most devastating fire season since 2019/2020, when the Amazon rainforest burned. According to Brazil’s Institute for Space Research, this year has seen a 1,500 percent increase in fires when compared to the same time — from January to July — last year. “By the end of May 2024,” NASA wrote, “almost the entire Pantanal region was classified as experiencing extreme drought.”

The Pantanal is an amazing place. Although most of it is in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, parts of it extend into Bolivia and Paraguay. It’s estimated to be between 54,000 and 75,000 square miles in size, and it is extraordinarily important to the regions ecosystem.

When it’s the rainy season, some 80 percent of the Pantanal is underwater. The aquatic plants that thrive there support a vast number of different animals, many of which have been killed in the fires. Howler monkeys, rheas, jaguars, crocodiles, and many vulnerable and endangered species like giant river otters and giant armadillos, are dying in staggering numbers. If things keep going the way they’re going, this will be the most most destructive wildfire year in Brazil in decades.

“The impact is devastating. Animals are dying, wildfires are vanishing huge areas,” Gustavo Figueirôa, a biologist at a non-governmental organization called SOS Pantanal, told The Guardian. “We expect it is only going to get worse.”

In normal years, the rainy season goes through something called a “flood pulse.” As the dry season approaches, the floods recede, but as the climate changes, that seasonal pattern is seeing dryer than normal wet seasons. That means, of course, that when the dry season comes, everything is dryer. And this year, it has been described as “a tinderbox.”

“The wildfires are a signal – nature is raising a flag,” said Pierre Girard at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. “We had fires before but now thousands and thousands of hectares burn every year. We are losing the battle.”

Local residents are extremely worried for their homes, animals, and lives. “The fires get worse every year,” said one named Jane Silva. “We thought this year’s fires had been extinguished, but the wind has brought them back to life. Now it is getting close again. The Pantanal is dying, but we have nowhere to go.”

Hospitals in the area are filled to the brim with people who are mostly suffering from respiratory issues brought on by the choking smoke. While humans can escape, the many animals living in the Pantanal cannot.

“In one week I have already seen hundreds and hundreds of dead animals, maybe thousands,” Luka Moraes, a local veterinarian, told The Guardian. “Reptiles, snakes, frogs – all the animals that cannot run – they do not stand a chance.”

Although there are naturally occurring wildfires in the Pantanal, many more are started by people. For centuries, ranchers have burned land to clear it for cattle, but those were mostly contained by the water in the Pantanal. As it becomes drier, those fires can turn into raging infernos.

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