File:Fires in Brazil and Bolivia (MODIS 2020-09-06).jpg

English: A pall of heavy smoke hangs over northern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil in early September 2020, marking another severe fire season in this part of the Amazon. According to Statista.com, from January to August 2020, Brazil reported 74,119 wildfires in that country, capturing the highest number of fires for any country in South America. Bolivia came in sixth place (after Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Columbia, and Paraguay) with 8,659 wildfires reported.

On September 3, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of smoke and fire near the border of Bolivia and Brazil.

Numerous red hotspots mark areas where the thermal bands on the instrument detected high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hotspots mark actively burning fire.

Although it is possible to identify these multiple hotspots as fire, it is not possible to determine whether they are actually wildfires or have been deliberately set to manage land or open the forest for agricultural or other purposes. In this region, at this time of year, slash-and-burn agriculture is a common practice. Used by small-scale farmers, fire can clear old crops, prepare ground for planting new crops, renew pasture, and open forest for small new plots. Fire is increasingly being used by large companies and on a massive scale, often driving substantial deforestation. The reports by Statista.com name “wildfires” in the Amazon, given that most of the fires in this image sit on the edge of forest land, it is most likely that most of the fires in this image are, in fact, agricultural in origin rather than accidental.