Fire On The Marsh

Development and deforestation feed climate change, which has altered the balance of Brazil’s Pantanal – the world’s largest marshland – leading to tragic oddities like wildfires. Photo by Armando Guerra

Climate change threatens nature’s balance in Brazil’s watery Pantanal – the world’s largest tropical wetlands and home to a stunning array of wildlife

Words by Gerry Hadden, @gerryhadden. Images by Armando Guerra, @_the_islander.

When you think of Brazil and nature, the massive Amazon is most likely the first thing that comes to mind. After all, the largest rainforest on the planet acts as the “lungs of the earth.”

The Amazonis mythical and mysterious, and its ongoing destruction is well-documented.

But if someone were to ask, “What about The Pantanal?” you could be forgiven for shrugging your shoulders. 

And yet Brazil’s Pantanal is no less important than the better-known jungle to the north.  It’s the largest tropical wetlands on Earth. Depending on how you measure it, its watery grasslands and forests cover between 54,000 and 75,000 square miles. It rivals the Amazon in biodiversity and beauty. But waterways don’t capture the imagination the way jungles do. So when the Pantanal comes under threat we’re less likely to hear about it and less likely to understand the alarming potential consequences.

The Pantanal is shrinking. It’s losing ground to rising temperatures and to the same kind of logging and development that’s devastating the Amazon next door. A consequence of that deforestation is less humidity, evaporation and rain –- rain that normally heads south and keeps the Pantanal flooded. As the Pantanal dries out, more and more wildfires burn out of control, creating a vicious circle.

The blazes, mainly started by people, are wiping out unique flora and fauna that have evolved within the Pantanal’s ecosystem over centuries. From capibara – the world’s largest rodent -  to jaguars and caiman and countless bird species.

The Forever Fires

"The Forever Fires," a film by Gerry Hadden and Armando Garcia.

Who’ll defend a swamp?

There are locals, biologists and veterinarians who defend the Pantanal, but they’ve learned that a global campaign to save a swamp won’t gain traction.

Still, they try. Tour guide Ailtan Lara, who owns a guest lodge deep in the Pantanal, doesn’t just take his guests for joy rides in his motorized launch. He wants them to catch a glimpse of the largest feline predator in the western hemisphere: the South American jaguar. The jaguar’s majesty, up close, is unforgettable. Its role as an alpha predator in the Pantanal ecosystem is key to maintaining the balance of almost every species in the wetlands’ complex food chain.

Pantanal tour guide Ailtan Lara, tracking jaguars. Photo by Armando Guerra

Lara speeds around, tracking and maintaining a database of the jaguars, animals he can identify by the unique spots on their faces. He gives them names, and he sends tourists home with photos they’re sure to share with the larger world.

Interest in jaguars, he says, is what gives him hope that public pressure will grow and his government will step in at some point to stop the destruction of his Pantanal homeland, and of the larger Amazon rain forest. After all, one ecosystem cannot live without the other.

It will be catastrophic for humans in Brazil and beyond if they both go.

Fighting for wildlife

Wildlife veterinarian Carla Sassi returns to the Pantanal to check on wildlife recovery after the fires. Photos by Armando Guerra

Wildlife veterinarian Carla Sassi shares Lara’s passion for the Pantanal.  Since the record wildfires in the Pantanal in 2020, she’s made several visits to treat burned animals and to assess the risk fires pose for the region’s diverse wildlife.

And, like Lara, Sassi’s work puts a face on what’s at stake. She hopes humanity will be moved into action by stories about the Pantanal’s buffalo, deer, birds and even snakes, amid the unfolding tragedy.

By all accounts, the 11th hour has already arrived in the Pantanal.

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Gerry Hadden is a long-time radio journalist who started at KPLU in Seattle, moved on to National Public Radio as a correspondent in Latin America and then to PRI’s The World as its Europe Correspondent. Along with Armando Guerra he's been making award-winning documentary films for the last eight years. Gerry also has written two books: a memoir entitled “Never the Hope Itself: Love and Ghosts in Latin America and Haiti,” and the novel “Everything Turns Invisible.” He lives in Barcelona with his family.

Armando Guerra (Cuba, 1975) is a documentary director and producer based in Spain. He started almost 20 years ago at CNN and has worked for CBC, PRI, Radio Havana Cuba and is a regular contributor to CGTN's documentary show Big Story. Among his films are "Für Maria", "Reinventing Cuba", "Ascending", "Unsustainable", "The Landing Strip", "Fortress Europe", "The Spanish Gate", "Made in Different Places," "Up North" and "Zero Hour". Armando also works as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Program where he produces campaigns and develops online learning content.