Brazil is burning. From the Amazon rainforest to the Pantanal wetlands, flames have consumed millions of hectares of forest and farmland in recent weeks.
Nearly two-thirds of Latin America's biggest country is under smoke.
While fueled by extreme drought, which the government says serves as "a demonstration of the gravity of climate change," many of the fires were set by "criminals," in the words of environment minister Marina Silva.
Here is what we know about Brazil's "fire pandemic," as Supreme Court judge Flavio Dino has described the state of affairs.
What is the extent?
According to data collected by satellites of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), a total of 188,623 fires have been identified in Brazil since the beginning of the year.
The total number for last year was 189,926.
The month of September 2024 has been the worst so far, with 61,572 fires recorded in 17 days compared to 46,498 for the whole of September 2023.
The number of blazes in the Amazon this month are already much higher than in 2019, when destruction of the world's largest tropical rain forest sparked an international outcry that placed then president Jair Bolsonaro on the back foot.
The figures for 2024 are still far from the record of 393,915 fires recorded in 2007—more than a third in September that year alone.
But this time, "fires are burning in several regions of the country at the same time, which makes the problem more complex to manage," said Ane Alencar, scientific director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).
What are the causes ?
Brazil has been experiencing a prolonged drought since June 2023, according to Suely Araujo, public policy coordinator for Brazil's Climate Observatory—a collective of non-governmental organizations.
Whatever rain did fall was "less than expected," resulting in dry conditions that can turn the slightest spark into a blaze.
"Climate change is at play, coupled with the El Niño phenomenon," said Araujo.
Alencar said most of the fires were deliberately set, most commonly by farmers clearing land.
Farmers can obtain government permission for such burning, but the practice has been temporarily banned because the fires can easily get out of control under current conditions.
However, "it is probably the law that is least respected in Brazil," Alencar told AFP.
Another culprit is the massive and influential agro-industry sector, which Alencar says has been found to deliberately set fire to public forests to clear land for farmers.
A third cause is more difficult to pinpoint: individual arsonists whose only motive is to "sow chaos," according to federal police chief Humberto Freire.
What is the outlook?
INPE researcher Karla Longo said that if the fire starters are not stopped, the blazes "will continue until it rains."
The drought that has Brazil in its grips is likely to last until October, she added.
"The rainy season is supposed to start in the second half of October... but it may be delayed due to extreme dryness and low atmospheric humidity," added Ricardo de Camargo, a professor of meteorology at the University of Sao Paulo (USP).
Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to combat climate change and pledged to stop illegal deforestation of the Amazon by 2030, conceded on Tuesday that Brazil was "not 100 percent prepared" to deal with the latest wave of fires as he announced $94 million for the response.
"The authorities should do more, at all levels," said Araujo, who led the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, a federal agency, from 2016 to 2019.
She called for closer coordination between ministries, as well as between national and state governments.
Freire has called for tougher penalties for "environmental crimes."
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People carry drinking water along a sandbank of Madeira River in Paraizinho Community, in Humaita, Amazonas state, northern Brazil, on September 7, 2024.
Only the youngest and strongest villagers now brave the crossing of a vast, blistering stretch of sand where, in normal times, the waters of the mighty Madeira River flow in the Brazilian Amazon.
Residents of the village of Paraizinho—or "Little Paradise"—usually cross the river by canoe to reach the larger city of Humaita, a vital link to buy food and water, get health care and send their children to school.
In drier times, this typically involves a short walk along a beach that appears as water levels drop.
But as Brazil grapples with its worst drought in 70 years, the waters have continued to shrink, leaving a stretch of almost a kilometer (about 0.6 miles) of sand baking under temperatures of about 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
"Every year it is worse. Last year more than half (of the river) dried up. This year it has dried up almost to the other side," Reis Santos Vieira, a 69-year-old farmer, told AFP.
"And it is expected to get worse," he added.
The Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon River that stretches for 3,300 km (2,050 miles) over Brazil and Bolivia, reached its lowest level since monitoring began in 1967 this week, according to the Brazilian Geological Service (SGB).
'A very difficult time'
People carry drinking water along a sandbank of Madeira River in the village of Paraizinho, in Amazonas state, northern Brazil, on September 7, 2024.
Experts link Brazil's historic drought to climate change. The parched conditions have fueled wildfires in the Amazon and elsewhere in the country that have clouded major cities in smoke pollution.
For much of the day, the dry riverbed becomes an inferno underfoot.
The roughly one hundred residents of Paraizinho "are tackling that beach on foot to transport the food and water we need here. It's a very difficult time," complained Sandra Gomes Vieira.
Last year, which also saw drought conditions, one of her daughters burned her foot crossing the riverbed. She has refused to go to school since the sand appeared this year.
"My sister is undergoing treatment for cancer and can't go to the city. Health personnel go to her house. I'm not very healthy either, but I still manage to get there," said Gomes.
Five community volunteers recently carried containers of drinking water barefoot from Humaita to Paraizinho that used to be easily transported on canoes across the river.
"Here, we only have the help of these people. Only them and God," said Francisca de Chaga da Silva, one of the water recipients.
Drinking water is transported by boat on the Madeira River in Amazonas state.
Faced with the water shortage, residents treat river water with chlorine to bathe and wash dishes or clothes.
'More smoke'
The prolonged drought is also impacting economic activities in Paraizinho, mainly fishing and the sale of agricultural products.
"The beach has grown a lot. Before, it was only two or three months" of drought, "now we are going for four, five months," said Ferreira.
Communities all along the banks of the Madeira River—an important route for the trade of soybeans, fish and fuel—are struggling. Some areas which also rely on Humaita have it worse than Paraizinho, residents of the village say, as they are even further away.
Intense fires elsewhere in the Amazon have also brought a haze of smoke to the village and surrounding locale.
Communities all along the banks of the Madeira River, an important route for the trade of soybeans, fish, and fuel, are struggling.
Authorities blame human activity for most of the recent fires in the country, which are often linked to clearing land for agriculture.
The weather "is hotter this year. There is also more smoke," said Sandra Gomes.
One of her daughters "has been feeling chest pains from the smoke. Before, she didn't suffer from this problem."
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to announce measures to tackle the effects of the drought in the Amazon during a visit to the city of Manaus on Tuesday.
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