Role in FIRE-ADAPT: co-host of the Brazil Study Hub
Organization: Centro Nacional de Prevenção e Combate aos Incêndios Florestais (Prevfogo), Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA)
Country: Brazil
What motivated me to join FIRE-ADAPT
The main reason was to exchange knowledge and carry out integrated research with researchers and managers from Europe, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and other countries. Although we have very fire dependent ecosystems and, recently, changes in fire regimes, we don´t have as much data or research in Brazil as in Europe, where there is a much more recorded history of fire and anthropic alterations of fire regimes much older than in South America. This knowledge can help us face the climate changes that are going to occur around the world. It won´t be different in Brazil and Latin America.
About my visit to Spain during the activities of its Study Hub
What was the objective of my visit
Know different fire regimes and ways to deal with wildfires and climate changes, see if the techniques of Spain can be applied in Brazil and Latin America, and bring a little of our experience in Integrated Fire Management (IFM) in Brazil to help also a little to face this problem in the Mediterranean region.
What were the mutual benefits for me and the Spain Study Hub
Although Spain and Europe have much more structure and many more resources, research, history of prevention and firefighting, which we like and help us make decisions in Brazil, we have a great experience in management that can be interesting because we work with very little money and very few resources. That is why we have to have very practical solutions and make decisions very quickly. All this can also help European countries.
What the realities of fires in Brazil and Spain have in common and different
Spain and the Mediterranean have some of the worst wildfires in the world in terms of fire behaviour, damage and severity for both nature and society. We did´t have records of fires as strong or behaviour as aggressive as in Spain, but this is changing. We are registering more and more fires of increasingly extreme behaviour in our wet savannahs and, mainly, in the tropical forest. Spain, Portugal, Italy and France have many studies on extreme fire behaviour, and that can help us a lot to foresee these behaviours, know what is happening, and be able to act in a safer way to control them and avoid their damage.
This is me
Favourite food: paella
Favourite film: City of God, by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund
Favourite singer or band: The Clash
I admire: Lula
In Brazil, I’d take you to: The Pantanal, because it has one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.