Emergency Grant to Fight Wildfires in Brazil
In the Summer of 2020 the Foundation received an urgent call for help from the Jaguar Identification Project, in partnership with Panthera.
‘Apocalyptic’ fires were ravaging the Brazilian Pantanal region which Pollyanna and Anna-Louise visited in 2017. The Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland, home to Indigenous peoples and a high concentration of rare or endangered species, including jaguars and giant armadillos. Small fires occur every year in the region, which sprawls over parts of western Brazil and extends into Bolivia and Paraguay. But 2020’s fires were unprecedented in extent and duration, researchers say. Almost 25% of the vast floodplain – around 3.2 million hectares – succumbed to the flames. That’s more than twice the area that has burnt in the record-breaking fires in California this year.
The Foundation was able to make an emergency donation of $500.00 which was used to used to buy protective equipment and fire fighting tools such as water pumps, hoses, and leaf blowers for use by local people.
Wildfires have a range of negative effects on the environment and the people that inhabit the area. They directly kill a vast array of species, large and small, especially when the animals cannot escape the flames quickly. Threatened species that are already struggling to survive in today’s warming climate, are pushed further towards extinction at an alarming rate. In addition to the direct death from fire, many animals lose their shelter, dens and feeding sources, especially in the areas of riverine forest. Aside from this, when the rains finally do come, tons of ashes will reach the river systems and lagoons, killing millions of fish and fouling water sources.
Fires in the Pantanal are not an unusual occurrence, in fact each dry season fires naturally occur there. However, after each dry season, the rainy season comes, followed by seasonal flooding across the entire region. This cycle naturally keeps these fires in check, but this year the rains and flooding were extremely mild, resulting in the driest rainy season in the last 50 years. The fires that usually die out naturally did not do so this season, and instead spread out of control through large forest. Fires that were thought to have been put out, would unfortunately reappear days later as they continued to burn under the surface. Once the fire enters the root systems it can travel underground and appear to be out, but actually smoulder there for a few days, and with the heat of the sun can spark again.
The fires, combined with Brazil’s current economic crisis and lack of resources from the government, forced Pantanal locals to take matters into their own hands in the fire fighting efforts. Conservation organisations also offered support. The Pantanal Jaguar Project works to create one of the world’s largest, intact, protected jaguar corridors – and partners with local cattle ranchers to establish a model of ranching that is compatible with jaguar conservation. An important part of their work involves monitoring the jaguar population and their prey under long-term research through the jaguar identification project. The spot pattern on the body and especially the face of a jaguar is comparable to a human fingerprint – no one pattern is the same. This makes it quite easy to identify individuals. The Jaguar Identification Project is building a cohesive database on individual jaguars in the northern Pantanal region.
In 2018 the internationally acclaimed American wildlife photographer Mark Thomas observed and photographed a young female, who had never been seen before by the Jaguar ID project. He was given the opportunity to name the jaguar, and with the approval of Abbie Martin, the head of the project, chose to name her in tribute to Pollyanna, saying “Pollyanna devoted so much to wildlife around this planet, it is only fitting that this beautiful cat bears her name.”