The article explains how entrenched pasture-burning practices nicknamed 'Red John' and a severe 2024 drought combined to ignite nearly 18 million hectares of the Brazilian Amazon. Most fires began on cattle ranches and spread into forest, causing widespread ecological damage and human suffering, especially for Indigenous and rural communities. Authorities and experts say the response requires firefighters, stronger enforcement of fines, land titling and a cultural shift toward safer land management.
Who’s Lighting the Amazon Ablaze? 'Red John' and the Ranch Fires Driving Deforestation
The article explains how entrenched pasture-burning practices nicknamed 'Red John' and a severe 2024 drought combined to ignite nearly 18 million hectares of the Brazilian Amazon. Most fires began on cattle ranches and spread into forest, causing widespread ecological damage and human suffering, especially for Indigenous and rural communities. Authorities and experts say the response requires firefighters, stronger enforcement of fines, land titling and a cultural shift toward safer land management.
07:08, 06.11.2025Environment
Who’s Lighting the Amazon Ablaze?
'Red John' is the colloquial name used by landowners and ranchers across Brazil's Amazon for the cheap, destructive fires set to clear pasture. The practice leaves blackened soil and scorched trees and has become a major driver of recent forest loss.
How the fires start
In northern Brazil's ranching belt, burning is so normalized that people casually say 'I’m going to hire the worker Red John' when planning a burn. Smallholders and large ranches alike use fire because it is inexpensive: a bit of gasoline and a match during the dry season can clear pasture quickly, while labor and inputs are costly and public support is limited, as cattle owner Antonio Carlos Batista explained.
The 2024 catastrophe
An unprecedented 2024 drought linked to climate change allowed routine burns to escape control and spread through parched vegetation. Nearly 18 million hectares (44.5 million acres) of the Brazilian Amazon burned that year, and for the first time more tropical forest was consumed than grassland. Many fires started on cattle ranches and raced into neighboring forest; Sao Felix do Xingu recorded more than 7,000 fire outbreaks.
Local impact and human costs
Large ranches such as Bom Jardim and commercial complexes like Agro SB figure prominently in satellite analyses by Mapbiomas and investigative reporting by AFP and Greenpeace. Fires destroyed pasture, killed or weakened cattle, and blanketed nearby Kayapo Indigenous villages with toxic smoke. 'There were days when you couldn't even breathe,' said teacher Maria de Fatima Barbosa.
Enforcement, accountability and politics
Although Brazil reported an 11 percent decline in deforestation in the 12 months to July, officials warned that the fires made the situation far worse. Environment Minister Marina Silva and Ibama president Rodrigo Agostinho say the response requires more firefighters, tougher sanctions, improved monitoring and, crucially, stronger enforcement of fines. Yet many fines remain unpaid and enforcement teams face threats. Large landowners sometimes evade scrutiny, while small farmers complain of being labeled criminals without receiving support.
Solutions and outlook
Experts argue the remedy must combine immediate operational capacity — fire brigades, aircraft, and satellite surveillance enhanced by artificial intelligence — with policy measures: land titling, better rural extension for safer controlled burns, credible sanctions, and campaigns to change entrenched practices. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to eliminate deforestation by 2030, and 2025 saw a temporary respite in fires thanks to improved rainfall patterns and increased oversight. Still, observers warn that no policy will succeed without broad public support and sustained investment in infrastructure and communities.
'Solutions always start with good public policy,' said journalist Joao Moreira Salles, adding that 'what matters most is not that the world sees what's being done, but that Brazil and Brazilians see it.'
Key actors cited: local ranchers and smallholders; large agribusinesses such as Agro SB; monitoring groups Mapbiomas and Greenpeace; government bodies including Ibama; and Indigenous communities in the Xingu region.