Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics in Relation to Fire Recurrence in the Brazilian Amazon, 2008–2014

Fire, normally associated with the deforestation process, is used to prevent vegetation regrowth and to renew crops and pastures. This paper identifies the relation between the changes in classes of land use and cover in relation to the use of anthropic fire in the Brazilian Amazonia for 2008-2014, thus quantifying tendencies of fire use in the region. Sankey-type graphs were used to analyze fire regimes. Two sources of data were used: the Amazonia TerraClass spatial database with land use and land cover classes estimated from Landsat imagery and the MODIS-AQUA fire pixels. In the fire affected areas, the recurrence was higher in the conversion of natural and secondary forests to pasture, and for pasture maintenance, where the respective percentages in land cover/use change were 22%, 40% and 71%. Also evidenced are the inefficient policies to control the illegal use of fire and in reducing the associated atmospheric emissions.