Looking down at the Amazonian region using satellite images a “fire arch” that approaches the Amazon River can be seen. Due to this visual effect the pattern of deforestation of Amazonia is usually considered a “fire arch” that approximates the Amazon River through the southwest of Brazil. The arch has been monitored since 1988, and estimates of deforestation areas have been an important instrument for fire prevention policies and national and international public opinion. The verified deforested areas in the years of 2000-2001 have been 1,4 times bigger than the original estimates. What has caused such a big increase in the fire and consequently in deforested areas in the Amazonia is not only a national Brazilian preoccupation but also a worldwide concern. Environmental scientists’ and policy makers are concerned in understanding why the actual deforested area is bigger than the estimate, why there was a fire increase in some areas and if the fire arch pattern can be still considered as a dominant fire structure in the Amazonian Region. Fire in the Amazon Region used by traditional population and also related to economic activities such as opening of pastures, logging and cereal plantations. In fact, fire is usually considered the cheapest technology for cleaning a forest area for further economic activity. But, can the fire registered in the satellite images be correlated with economic factors registered in the macroeconomic indicators?
This paper is interested in approaching this question by means of analytically relating the different deforestation indices and the fire images with the local, regional and national macroeconomic indicators.
Making use of the satellite images of the fires in the Amazon Region, areas that had an important fire increase will be chosen as case studies. The period of study chosen will be during the Brazilian Real Economic Plan, 1994-2002, due to the fact that during the initial and final years of this economic plan a great increase in fire areas in the Amazonian Region was registered.
The case studies chosen will be analyzed by means of local (the municipalities which most caught fire), regional and national economic indicators searching for possible explanations of the fire patterns which caused the important deforestation increase during the years of 2000-2001 and discuss the possible future changes in the Amazonian “fire arch”.
