Remember the small crops of pumpkin, watermelon, cassava, rice, sugar cane and peanuts? When you move away at flood time, to let the water wash the land, coming in and out of the bays. Catching lunch on the spot. These are Leonida Aires de Souza’s memories. Returning to the past is a pleasure for her.
Leonida lives in Barra do São Lourenço, in the rural area of Corumbá (MS), a city which, in 2024, ranked second for incidence of fires in Brazil. The drought in the Pantanal served as fuel for these fires. Today, the layers of ash on the community’s soil is so dense that planting is impossible.
In the wake of these fires, CESE talked to the Agri is Fire Coalition (Articulação Agro é Fogo) about providing emergency support for the most affected communities in the Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal. The proposal included support for the purchase of food/staple food baskets, drinking water, fire-fighting PPE, seedlings and/or other items. In the Pantanal, the partnership included local coordination by Ecology and Action (Ecologia e Ação: ECOA).