The world's largest tropical rainforest are burning out of control and the fire was believed to be caused by humans.
Fires near Porto Belho, Brazil.
Photo credit: Victor Moriyama from The Guardian.
In 2019 alone, the Amazon rainforest suffers from 72,843 fires- which is the highest fires detected since 2010 (according to the Brazil's National Institute of Space Research).
Forest fire in Amazon during this time of year is not new, owing to the dry seasons that begins in July, peaks in early September and ends in mid-Nov. However, fire is often used by people to clear the land after the profitable timbers were removed to prepare the land for crop plantation and grazing purposes. Not all fires are linked to illegal forest clearing - as fire is frequently used to clear crop residues and vegetation - but it will only produce less fierce fires, definitely not reflecting what is happening now in Amazon forest.
FOREST FIRES IN MALAYSIA
Bomba personnel worked out to put out a blaze affecting the peat soil at Kuala Baram, Sarawak.
Photo credit: The Borneo Post.
After 26 days of fires raging across forest and peat soils in Kuala Baram district, Sarawak, the fires were finally contained and completely extinguished by the fire departments and local authorities, aided by heavy downpour. The incident was believed to be caused by hot and dry weather. Malaysians witnessed one of the worst haze recorded in the country's history- with the Air Pollution level (API) reached 442 (hazardous level) due to the forest and peat fires.
IMPACTS ON BIODIVERSITY
Between 1990 to 2016, The World Bank Group recorded a decrease of 1.32 million square km of the world's forest area due to multiple factors including agriculture and urbanisation. Incidents such as forest fire worsen the situation, slow-moving animals, smaller creatures and those that can't find safe shelters may die and not to mention that plants can't move so they will have significantly lower chance of surviving.
For those animals that are able to escape, the story does not ends there. The transformed forest will pose a challenge to the survived animals such as competition may increase between herbivores due to significantly lower number of plants available post-fire. In some cases, animals such as snakes and monitor lizards may escaped into nearby human residential areas to save themselves from the fire such as what happened during the forest and peat fires in Sarawak.
Therefore, it is very crucial for us to prevent forest fire incident especially in dry season.
Please don't hesitate to report open burning and wildfire when you spot it, it can save lives.
Online complaint submission (Department of Environment Malaysia): https://eaduan.doe.gov.my//eaduan/index.php?lang=EN
Toll free number: 1-800-88-2727
An animal carcass was found lying in a burnt-out forest near Porto Velho.
Photo credit: Joedson Alves from The Guardian.
References:
Amazon forest fires
Sarawak forest and peat fires
Impacts on biodiversity
Photo credits:
