Pantanal Conservation Area

• Fires

N/A

On 25 February 2022, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation of the property, available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/999/documents/, reporting the following:

The Pantanal biome has been suffering from the most prolonged and severe drought in the last 60 years and has recorded the lowest water level indices in 17 years in 2020. As a result, in 2020, forest fires were the largest and the most numerous ever recorded to date, affecting 32% of the wider Pantanal biome;

In 2020, firefighting was carried out across the region, between 11 August and 14 December, by federal, state and municipal government agencies in collaboration with civil society organisations, volunteers and farm owners;

To mitigate the loss of biodiversity resulting from fires, active searches for impacted animals were undertaken and a field veterinarian hospital was set up to provide treatment;

In 2021, fires in the surrounding area were prevented from spreading and reaching the property;

The process of acquiring personnel, equipment, and materials has been initiated, including 1,300 firefighters, Individual Protection Equipment (IPE), specialised vehicles, communication equipment and mobile accommodation structures;

Cooperation Agreements have been signed between key institutions aimed at preventing fires in the property through environmental education, forest fire research, firefighter training, integration between the federation entities for the implementation of relevant public policies, among others;

The Pantanal Research Network/PPBio Project will develop instruments for understanding, managing and preventing fires. In 2022, the project aims to develop a real time fire alert system; seasonal prevention system and educational materials on the use of fire as a management and conservation tool;

Plans for the conservation and recovery of flora and fauna are underway, including:

A study to assess the impact of fire on biodiversity in the Matogrossense National Park and the Taiamã Ecological Station that will present a Strategic Conservation Plan for the recovery of affected areas;

A GEF-Land Project, which encompasses management in Conservation Units and adjacent areas, recovery of degraded areas and assessment of the risk of extinction of fauna and flora;

A Plan for Conservation and Recovery of Endemic Plant Populations in the Pantanal,

Other relevant national biodiversity monitoring programmes and conservation action plans.

Whilst recognising that fire is a natural process in the Pantanal, it is of concern that, the most prolonged and severe drought in the last 60 years resulted in 2020, in the most extensive fires ever recorded, affecting 32% of the wider biome. The State Party should be commended for its immediate actions to extinguish the fires and limit the damage to the biodiversity of the property, as well as preventing subsequent fires in the surrounding area in 2021 from spreading and reaching the property.

The processes underway to acquire the necessary personnel, equipment, and materials to fight fires in the future are also welcomed. The State Party should be encouraged to continue these efforts to increase fire management capacity, including building the necessary institutional cooperation, alongside the further development of instruments to understand, manage and prevent future fires, considering the potential for climate change to further exacerbate extreme weather conditions.

The projects established to assess the impacts of fire on the biodiversity of the Pantanal biome are noted. However, since it remains unclear to what extent the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property has been impacted by the fires, it is recommended the Committee reiterate its request to the State Party to assess the impacts of the fires specific to the attributes of the OUV of the property, and submit the findings to the World Heritage Centre, when available.

The plans underway for the conservation and recovery of flora and fauna in the Pantanal biome are also noted. Whilst the State Party should be encouraged to further develop and implement each of these initiatives, these should include measures for recovery across the entire property, including the Acurizal, Penha and Doroche private reserves, as well as specific considerations to safeguard the OUV of the property.

Recognising that other World Heritage properties have also recently been affected by fire, the State Party should be encouraged again to exchange knowledge on fire management strategies in natural World Heritage properties with other States Parties facing similar threats.