Support anarchist firefighters fighting forest fires in Brazil

Deforestations in Brazil

The burning season in Brazil usually starts between May and June and lasts until November, when the climate in the country is gradually getting drier. Some outbreaks of forest fires occur naturally and many end naturally as well. Regardless of this fact, the environmental collapse that the world faces directly interferes in the different ecosystems, and for the geography of Brazil this imbalance contributes a lot to the worsening of the fires. However, this is not our biggest problem.

It is in the interest of landowners, monoculture farmers, and most politicians who control the country, including the current president of Brazil, that forests burn to become pasture for cattle and monoculture fields. Deforestation is in the interest of capital for capital.

It turns out that the sum of all these factors are destroying Brazilian biomes, displacing traditional and indigenous communities and extinguishing fauna and flora, especially in the Amazônia and the Pantanal. The Pantanal, for example, only last year (2020), in the middle of a pandemic, lost 25% of its territory in fires, the vast majority of which were criminals. The public force was unable to contain the fires and often did not even have a contingent to act, as this investment is not in the interest of the State.

Self-organization

The Brigada Autônoma Urutau organized itself in this context: in view of the State's inability and lack of interest in taking care of our biomes and the extremely low number of volunteers that are willing to go out to fight fires. Acting autonomously and in conjunction with the Brigada Lucas Eduardo Martins and with independent firefighters in the Pantanal fires in 2020, the desire and urgency to act before it was too late was born.

The future scenario for Brazil's environment is not favorable. We know that in addition to the fires, there are numerous dams on verge of break and affect nearby communities. Our Brigade also is structured to be in readiness when situations like these happen and can help in many ways. It was like the case of the disaster in Brumadinho, where one of our companions went there to help voluntarily.

How we will use the campaign money

The fires over the years will become more constant, with larger dimensions and for a longer period. Just like the fires in California. We need to equip ourselves in order to be able to act more often, to be safer and to have the chance to share equipment with other brigades that are also autonomous and have less resources. To date, Brigada Autônoma Urutau has operated with borrowed materials and has often ceased to operate because it did not have the equipment. The materials we have so far have come through donations and small fundraising campaigns, however they are still insufficient.

We have a detailed list of equipment that we want to buy with the money from this campaign. We must remember that a part of this equipment has a large price variation and that there are freights for their delivery to our homes. The rest of the amount left over after the purchase of all materials will be used for our trip to the Pantanal this year (2021). The costs of this trip include pickup truck rental, fuel, highway fees, food and emergency reservations. It is likely that we will run other campaigns in the future to assist in these travels that are very costly. However, the urgency now is to get equipped!

Equipment list

All the amount received, in addition to sufficient for the purchase of the equipment, will be used for our expenses to operate in the Pantanal in 2021.