Hit by widespread, highly destructive woodland blazes during the last two dry seasons, Brazil is entering this year’s dry season having once again done little to ensure fire prevention. Complicating matters, the damage could be even greater this year, thanks to an ongoing drought being described as the worst in nearly a century. On June 28, President Jair Bolsonaro did decree a 120-day nationwide ban on setting fires. But as in the past, his government has not laid groundwork to ensure the enforcement of such measures and has failed to mount an extensive and sustained campaign to curb the rampant deforestation that has contributed to runaway woodland blazes. “During the past two years, the current government has shown a complete lack of political will in controlling deforestation and the fires that result from it in Brazil in general, and particularly in its Amazon region,” says Ane Alencar, a fire... [Log in to read more]