Curbing forest fires

Project goal: prevent forest fires, protect biodiversity
Project size: more than 65,000 square kilometers of tropical savanna
Project volume: 8.5 million euros within the framework of the International Climate Initiative, another 3.5 million euros to made available at the end of 2013

In Brazil, firefighters are battling to prevent major wildfires from razing the country’s precious forests. When wildfires are extinguished quickly, the climate remains largely unharmed. The Cerrado, a tropical savanna region in Brazil, is a massive carbon sink, yet forest land is disappearing there at an alarming rate. In 2010, 9,000 square kilometers of nature reserve area was destroyed by fires, wiping out a plot of land as large as Cyprus. Now, the international Climate Initiative is providing 8.5 million euros in funding for a project to help Brazilian firefighters to detect and extinguish wildfires faster.

A film by Jürgen Schneider