The Amazon ecosystem, together with the Arctic, is listed as the first of five IPCC Reasons for Concern due to climate change, given the high confidence level that different temperature warming and GHG emissions will pose significant risks that threaten these unique ecosystems . In addition to the scientific evidence, a resurgence of cross-national collective expressions about the fate of the Amazon forest, Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities, in the context of an unprecedented climate crisis and sustainable future, have gained pronounced importance. On 19 August 2019, the skies of Sao Paulo State were dark by 3 pm due to the formation of a 'smoke corridor' associated with the extensive burning of the Amazon forest . The fire outbreaks were a consequence of multiple factors related to political, social, economic and environmental scenarios concomitant with the weakening of environmental governance, such as control and monitoring of deforestation and fire incidences programmes . The deforestation rate and incidences of fire are both increasing in the Amazon of Brazil, Colombia and Peru . Accordingly, 2019 registered an increase of 60% in the cumulative fire count in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru in comparison with the same period in 2018, and a 12% increase in comparison with the same period in an extremely dry year in 2016 . In this context, looking at this case study through the lenses of poverty, inequality and the SDGs, it addresses the compound effect of climate and land use change in the Amazon forest fires and its cascading impacts and risks on the social domain in the region. There is evidence that both climate and land use change impacts and risks are disproportionately borne by poor and vulnerable ethnic groups, remote rural communities and poor urban households in the Amazon .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report