Environmentalists step up Amazon monitoring as fire season picks up

Environmentalists warn that the Brazilian Amazon could be in for a bad burning season despite a drop in deforestation this year, as years of accumulated destruction and the arrival of El Nino could turn swathes of the jungle into a tinderbox.
Flying near the city of Porto Velho this week to monitor the world’s largest rainforest, a Greenpeace team spotted several fires in the area during its hottest period of the year, which runs from July to September.
“We are now in the middle of the Amazonian summer, when we usually see an increase in fires,” said Greenpeace Brasil spokesman Romulo Batista, looking out over the forest from an airplane traveling over Amazonas state.
The height of the annual burning season usually falls in August and September, when fires tend to spike as rains subside, allowing ranchers and farmers to set fire to deforested areas.