The Agro is Fire Coalition (Articulação Agro é Fogo) publicly denounces the systematic and orchestrated incidents of criminal fires around Brazil, which have had major a impact on the population, fauna and flora of Brazil’s various biomes.
The fires have left huge scars, especially on traditional communities and indigenous peoples, which is exacerbated by the arrival of drought. Most communities lack the necessary equipment and resources, and, although volunteer and self-organized fire brigades have bravely fought back, the scars are severe. It has affected the genetic heritage of the territories and their ways of life, including their homes, sacred sites, community spaces, crops, gardens; directly impacting on food security, causing desertification and threatening Brazil’s drainage basins.
The communities now have two problems to tackle: the fires and the drought, with their health further aggravated by respiratory, cardiac and psychological problems. As Adriano Karipuna, an indigenous leader from Rondônia said: “It’s not just the flu or a cold, it’s that the climate is dry. ‘Drink a lot of water’, that’s what they say. So there’s no solution, either to contain the fire, the criminal fire, or to solve the problems suffered because of the smoke, because inhaling this toxic smoke is horrible for any human being. And the hospitals [are] getting more and more crowded with our people”.