The Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, is at risk of disappearing

The fire stalks the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, which concentrates a great biodiversity. It is home to 3,500 plant species, nearly 600 bird species, 150 mammal species, 175 reptile species, 40 amphibian species, and 300 freshwater fish species. Nevertheless, this transboundary freshwater ecosystem, which extends through Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, carries the consequences of the fires that have occurred in recent years.

“In 2019, several institutions warned the authorities that 2020 could have a scenario of many fires and they did nothing,” regrets Andre Siqueira, President Director of Ecologia e Ação (ECOA), explaining that they added to this the dismantling of Brazilian environmental policy and the reduction of resources. “What everyone predicted happened. the biggest environmental tragedy in the Pantanal with 4.2 million hectares burned in 2020 and 2 million hectares in 2021, only on the Brazilian side”, tells DW.

In addition to the death of millions of animals, these events caused dire consequences for the environment.. “During the year 2020, around 115 million tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere. The magnitude of this event is alarming, since it would exceed by a margin of more than 20% the carbon dioxide emissions generated in Colombia during that same year,” Claudia Velarde, a lawyer with the Ecosystems Program of the Inter-American Association for Defense of the Environment (AIDA).

Preventing damage with increased protection

For this reason and to avoid the repetition of the fires of previous years, AIDA, ECOA and the Center for Biological Diversity demanded that six wetlands in the Pantanal – listed as sites of international importance under the Ramsar Convention – be registered in the Montreux Register, the world list of wetlands at serious risk.

“This registry is one of the main tools of the Convention to highlight those sites that require priority conservation attention,” María Rivera, senior advisor for the Americas of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention, the international treaty that watches over the protection of wetlands in the world.

In this sense, Rivera recalls that the countries that are part of the international treaty have agreed to report on the status of any wetland that experiences “technological changes, development, pollution or other human interference.” “Information on these changes must be transmitted without delay to the Secretariat of the Convention”, he stresses, recalling that “the main responsibility of the States is the conservation and wise use of wetlands of international importance”.

The inscription of the sites in the Montreux Registry implies economic aid, as well as support and technical advice for the recovery of the Pantanal in the three countries. Likewise, the organizations also demanded that an advisory mission be sent to six wetlands in the Pantanal: the Bolivian Pantanal; the SESC Pantanal Natural Heritage Private Reserve, the Fazenda Rio Negro Natural Heritage Private Reserve, the Pantanal Matogrossense National Park and the Taiamã Ecological Station in Brazil; as well as the Río Negro National Park in Paraguay.

“The mission consists of a visit by international experts who would give highly specialized recommendations to Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, to overcome the conditions that generate risk for the conservation and rational use of the Pantanal, with the purpose of developing innovative management and protection measures. ”, details Velarde.

A question of responsibility

Civil society organizations also called on the three governments to implement measures to preserve the Pantanal as a transboundary ecosystem. “We are asking the States to comply with the obligations acquired before the Convention, generating coherent mechanisms and implementing policies and regulations to protect the Pantanal”, recalls the AIDA lawyer.

However, “from the management point of view, the Pantanal National Park has been without administration for 2 years and without financial resources, and the Río Negro State Park burns every year without an administrative, supervisory, or management structure,” criticizes the Brazilian manager.

In the case of Bolivia, “Ramsar sites are part of the custody of the Ministry of Environment and Water. Until now, its management has remained pending, except for those that have coincided with the management of protected areas,” Daniel Larrea, Coordinator of the Science and Technology Program of ACEAA Amazon Conservation of Bolivia, reminds DW, pointing to the need to “generate instruments of specific management and an institutional framework that accompanies the actions”.

In this sense, Siqueira also points to the role of the Ramsar Convention in the matter. “The Convention needed to monitor more closely all the problems that the Pantanal is going through in the three countries; They are large infrastructure works such as dams, waterways and ports, as well as fires, deforestation, plain agriculture and the climate crisis. In this way, it could demand clearer measures from the three governments to face these problems”, he considers. (I)