FOREST FIRES IN THE BRAZILIAN PANTANAL: A GEOGRAPHICAL READING

Abstract

The occurrence of forest fires in the Brazilian Pantanal results from changes in productive dynamics as a reflection of the advance of capitalist relations of production. This is the scope of this investigation whose objective is to identify the main causes of forest fires in the Pantanal and analyze the physical, political, social and economic aspects involved. As a technique for investigating empirical data, direct observation was used in two groups of inhabitants of the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Norte, living in the municipalities of Cáceres and Poconé. The research script was composed of two central questions: a) why do forest fires occur in the Pantanal? b) What are the climatological, political, social and economic aspects involved? The primary information was grouped from the perspective of qualitative research. Secondary data were obtained from the Center for Weather Research and Climate Studies of the National Institute for Space Research (1998 – 2020). It is concluded that forest fires are not only due to events related to changes in climate dynamics, but occur due to the advance of the capitalist model of production, which appropriates agrarian space, determining transformations in the traditional models of nature management, contributing to the concentration of land structure, wealth and accentuating the destruction of biodiversity and sociodiversity.