"The Kalunga people have mastered wildfires in the Cerrado for generations. Now they fight blazes from the Amazon to the Pantanal"

"In the world’s largest tropical wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal, a group of Kalunga firefighters dig a firebreak line between the forest and the flames as they battle a wildfire spreading over the region.

The firefighters are descendants of enslaved Africans that first set up Brazil's "quilombo" settlements three centuries ago.

Brazil has suffered from a historic drought this year as South America increasingly struggles with the impact of climate change. The country had its largest burnt area of land in over a decade in the first nine months of 2024, according to government data, as the drought exacerbated human-started fires."

Andre Cabette Fabio reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation October 15, 2024. [2]