Fires in Colombia's Amazon spark alarm over deforestation
February 4, 2022
2:58 PM CST
Last Updated a day ago
By Oliver Griffin
2 minute read
BOGOTA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Intense fires in Colombia's Amazon region so far this year point to rising deforestation by people clearing land for ranching and other uses, alarming environment groups, while officials also warned of pollution caused by smoke.
The burning is occurring in Colombia's so-called arc of deforestation in Caqueta, Meta and Guaviare provinces, where it creeps into national parks and parts of the Amazon rainforest. Preserving the forest is considered vital for curbing climate change.
"The intensity of the fires is greater than we've seen for many years," Rodrigo Botero, director general of the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS) said in an interview. "That is a very alarming sign."
. . .
"What we're seeing is a lot of major fires, which means we're seeing a lot of fires that are burning biomass," or organic matter, Matt Finer, Amazon Conservation senior research specialist and director of the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Reuters.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/fires-colombias-amazon-spark-alarm-over-deforestation-2022-02-04/
