Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP) has introduced a bill that bans the practice of burning in the Legal Amazon as long as the state of public calamity resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic lasts. According to Randolfe, the expectation of worsening fires in the 2020 dry season will increase the incidence of respiratory problems, adding to the coronavirus crisis and producing effects that are not limited to the Amazon region.
Bill 2.328/2020 subjects the setting of fires during the pandemic to the penalties of the Environmental Crimes Law (Law 9.605 of 1998), except those authorized for pest control and firefighting, and those intended for land preparation for subsistence agriculture.
However, in the bill's justification, the senator argues that burning is an “outdated method” that has a negative impact on the environment and increases greenhouse gas emissions: “The emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought yet another strong reason for Brazil to put an end to deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon. Previously, we knew this was essential to help reduce global warming, the effects of climate change, and the loss of biodiversity. Now we also need to do this to save lives and preserve the public health system.”
Randolfe cited data on the upward trend in the number of fires in the Amazon, and correlated the worsening of respiratory diseases resulting from the “epidemic of deforestation and burning” with the rise in mortality from COVID-19. According to the senator, the situation will increase the demand for the Amazon's public health network, which is already failing to cope with the coronavirus, but will also be felt in other regions.
“It is important to point out that it is not only people living near areas where wildfires are common who suffer from the smoke. In situations of more intense burning, such as that in 2019, the haze caused by the fire travels thousands of kilometers and reached other cities, states, and even countries, she notes.
SOURCE:
FIRE MAGAZINE
