Areas burned down during “Day of the Fire” are now illegaly occupied by soybean fields

Between August 10 and 11, 2019, farmers and landowners in the southwest of Pará state mobilized to set fire to areas of the Amazon forest in an episode that became known as “Day of the Fire.” In the period, the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) detected 1,457 hotspots in the state, an increase of 1,923% compared to the previous year. More than two years later, Repórter Brasil revealed that the burned area is now home to soybean fields. The agency carried out an unprecedented survey by cross-referencing the coordinates of the locations where it spotted the plantations with fire alert data from NASA satellites at the time.

One of the main areas affected by the fire, the Sustainable Development Project Terra Nossa, a settlement of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), was also invaded by monoculture, even though this type of cultivation goes against the purpose of this type of agrarian reform, intended for the subsistence of the settled families.