"The Kalunga people have mastered wildfires in the Cerrado for generations. Now they fight blazes from the Amazon to the Pantanal"
"In the world’s largest tropical wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal, a group of Kalunga firefighters dig a firebreak line between the forest and the flames as they battle a wildfire spreading over the region.
The firefighters are descendants of enslaved Africans that first set up Brazil's "quilombo" settlements three centuries ago.
Brazil has suffered from a historic drought this year as South America increasingly struggles with the impact of climate change. The country had its largest burnt area of land in over a decade in the first nine months of 2024, according to government data, as the drought exacerbated human-started fires."
Andre Cabette Fabio reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation October 15, 2024.
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