Forest fires in Brazil

Indigenous lands are going up in smoke in the Amazon—because of illegal logging. So far,  fire has consumed over 45 percent of the rainforest in the Arariboia Indigenous Land—an area of protected forest that is home to thousands of people.

This aerial photo shows forest fires raging near Lago Branco (White Lake) in Maranhão State Brazil. The fire has lasted 2 months and is the largest ever recorded in Brazilian indigenous lands. About 45% of 413,000 hectares of land have been destroyed so far. The lack of an effective policy to protect indigenous lands allows illegal logging, and increases the risk that fires like this might happen in other lands, since the degradation caused by illegal logging makes the forests vulnerable to fires. 24/10/2015.

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