outubro, 09 2023

By WWF-Brasil

The severe drought affecting the Amazon is producing a human and environmental tragedy in the region - and the situation could become even worse due to a perverse climate combination.

The abnormal warming of the Atlantic Ocean has brought forward the start of the dry season, producing an extreme drought that is drying up some of the main Amazon rivers at an unprecedented rate, multiplying wildfires and increasing temperatures above normal. The drought is most severe in the Western Amazon, which comprises the states of Acre, Rondônia, Roraima and Amazonas.

At the same time, the strong El Niño predicted for this year is expected to intensify from mid-October, worsening and prolonging the effects of the drought, which tend to spread to other parts of the biome. If the anomalous warming of the Atlantic continues, according to experts, the extreme drought in the Amazon could last until mid-2024.

According to the director of Conservation and Restoration at WWF-Brazil, Edegar de Oliveira, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been warning for years about the increase in the frequency of extreme events such as the drought that is ravaging the Amazon.

"The combination of climate change and rampant deforestation contributes to the worsening and prolongation of the drought, which, in turn, leads to an increase in wildfires, which tends to further exacerbate the effects of drought, affecting the rainfall regime. This impacts not only in the lives of local people, but it also affects the economy and water security of other regions, as everything that happens in the Amazon affects other biomes”, he explained.
 

Worsening of the drought in October

If the predictions are confirmed, with the drought worsening in October, the Negro, Solimões, Purus, Madeira and Amazonas rivers should experience, in 2023, the biggest drought in history, surpassing that of 2005, when there was a lack of food, fuel, energy and water in countless locations. There were other severe droughts in 2010, 2015 and 2016, but in none of them there was such a pronounced warming of the Atlantic.

This catastrophic scenario is already taking shape in the Amazon, with entire cities, which can only be accessed via rivers, running the risk of becoming isolated. In several locations, the rivers are already impassable, making it impossible to transport food and medicine, hindering the water supply as well.

Around 500,000 people are already being affected in the region. The worst situation is in Amazonas state, where 55 of the 62 municipalities have declared a state of emergency. The state government is already studying the possibility of removing entire communities that live from family farming in the floodplain areas of the main rivers due to changes in the region's climate.

A state of emergency was also declared in Rio Branco, capital of Acre state - where there is already a lack of drinking water and rural production has plummeted. Porto Velho, capital of Rondônia state, will declare a state of emergency in the coming days, if there is no recovery of the Madeira River, whose level drop has already broken all historical records in recent months. Both in Rondônia and Roraima states, hydroelectric plants have already had their activities suspended due to low river levels.

The drought is also affecting agriculture: in the region of the Araguaia and Tocantins rivers, in Pará state, pastures have lost their vegetation cover and there are records of many cattle head deaths. According to Cemaden (National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts), 79 municipalities in the Northern Region had more than 80% of their agricultural areas impacted by drought.

The extreme drought in the Amazon caught the attention of Brazilian and global society after the press reported the death of at least 125 pink river dolphins and tucuxi river dolphins in Lake Tefé, in the region of the middle Solimões River, in Amazonas state, where the waters reached 40 degrees - 10 above the historically recorded average.
 

Facing the crisis

Since the beginning of the crisis of the river dolphins, WWF-Brazil has worked in partnership with the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, which is rescuing dolphins in the region, providing fuel, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), veterinary supplies and logistical support for displacement of volunteers.

WWF-Brazil is also already in contact with local partners and is mobilised to support them in facing the humanitarian crisis caused by the drought in the Amazon region, as it has especially dramatic consequences for the most vulnerable populations, such as indigenous people, quilombolas, extractivists and riverside dwellers.
"We formed a huge coalition to help collect carcasses, monitor live animals in critical areas of low depth and high temperatures, in addition to collecting and sending biological and water samples for analysis. An entire effort to get to the root causes of this unprecedented event", states Mariana Paschoalini Frias, Conservation analyst at WWF-Brazil.

According to her, the crisis shows that it is urgent to carry out more studies on the impacts of climate change on fauna.

"In our studies on Amazonian dolphins, we found that they suffer from several pressures, such as predatory fishing, mercury contamination and the impact of hydroelectric plants. But these events in Tefé show that more research needs to be carried out on how they will be affected by constant climate change ."

The crisis, however, goes far beyond the death of the river dolphins. There are already records of increased mortality of fish species in the region, including pirarucu, which is essential for the food and economy of local populations. Furthermore, for many experts, the unprecedented tragedy in the Amazon could be a taste of what could happen when the Amazon reaches its tipping point.