Anthropologist João Biehl and historian Miquéias Mugge have collaborated with international colleagues on a groundbreaking study led by World Weather Attribution on the impact of climate change on the wildfires that are ravaging the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands. Spanning over 15 million hectares across Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, the Pantanal is home to numerous Indigenous communities and is a critical planetary biodiversity hotspot, hosting more than 2,000 plant species and over 1,000 animal species.

The interdisciplinary study reveals that the hot, dry, and windy conditions fueling these fires were made 40% more intense due to human-induced climate change.

To date, wildfires are believed to have burned more than 1.3 million hectares of the Pantanal. June 2024 was particularly destructive, with an estimated 440,000 hectares burned in a single month—an area significantly larger than the previous June maximum and far exceeding the monthly average.

The wildfires have devastated traditional lands, displaced communities, killed innumerable wild animals and birds, and disrupted cultural practices. Economic activities, such as tourism and agriculture, have also suffered, with significant crop losses and livestock deaths. 

The international research team included experts from the United States, Brazil, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, including researchers affiliated with the Brazil LAB, such as  anthropologist Adriana Petryna, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues from MapBiomas.

The group focused on how climate change has altered the likelihood and intensity of extreme fire weather conditions in the Pantanal. While acknowledging the complexities of agribusiness encroachment and human activities in starting and suppressing wildfires, the study specifically attributes the increased fire weather conditions to climate change. The critical tipping points in the Amazon play a significant role in influencing climate dynamics in the Pantanal, further exacerbating the fire weather conditions.

This report underscores the urgent need for climate-smart strategies to manage and protect the Pantanal as global temperatures continue to rise, exacerbating the risk and intensity of such catastrophic events.

The World Weather Attribution study has been quickly taken up by major international and Brazilian media outlets, such as The Guardian, CNN, Reuters, Swissinfo, O Globo, revista piauí, and Folha de S. Paulo, generating timely debate among policymakers and the general public.

Along with colleagues from the High Meadow Environmental Institute, Biehl and Mugge have also recently contributed to another comprehensive study led by World Weather Attribution, examining the impact of climate change, El Niño, and infrastructure failures on southern Brazil’s most destructive extreme weather event ever.

The full study on the Pantanal wildfires can be read here.