Real-time monitoring towers, smoke detection algorithms, and apps that can be used offline – technology is changing the routine of community fire brigades that fight fires in conservation units in the cerrado, Brazil’s savanna biome and the second-largest in land area after the Amazon. Initiatives supported by the Copaíbas Program reduce response times to fire outbreaks and expand the protection of environmental areas.

Created to operate in the Amazon and cerrado biomes, the program aims to reduce deforestation, strengthen conservation areas, and support indigenous peoples and traditional communities. The program is managed by the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (Funbio) and funded by the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative.

Paula Ceotto, the program manager, explains that, since 2022, Copaíbas has also been investing in the purchase of equipment and personal protective equipment for the conservation units.

“Copaíbas supports planning, training, and implementation of integrated fire management actions, including through a call for proposals launched in 2025, which allocated BRL 5 million to projects in conservation units and their surrounding areas.”

Real-time monitoring

One of the most recent initiatives was introduced in the Serra da Bodoquena National Park, in Mato Grosso do Sul state, where a tower equipped with high-resolution cameras began operating in May.

The equipment uses algorithms capable of identifying early signs of smoke almost in real time. Guilherme Dalponti, an environmental consultant at the Neotrópica Foundation of Brazil – which installed the equipment – explains that it differs from systems that rely solely on satellite imagery, which can result in delays in fire detection.

“The system sends immediate alerts to the monitoring teams,” he sais.

The tower was positioned at a strategic point in the park to expand coverage of the areas most affected by fires. According to Dalponti, monitoring already covers about 90 percent of the conservation unit, which spans approximately 76,000 hectares. In addition to the technological infrastructure, the project also includes the formation of community fire brigades, training in the use of equipment, and environmental education initiatives.

An app for firefighters

Another initiative supported by the program is the Caminho do Fogo (“Firepath”) app, developed to assist firefighters in the field. The tool compiles data on incidents, locations, and territory, enabling communication between teams, monitoring, and the logging of operations, even in areas without internet access.

The app also records the routes taken by teams, which facilitates their return to base in unfamiliar areas. The tool is currently being tested in different regions of Brazil, including in Alter do Chão, in Pará, and the Emas National Park, in Goiás.

The first official version is expected to be launched in July 2026. The system integrates geographic information, operational records, and satellite monitoring into a single platform, allowing data to be shared with official systems as well.

Representatives of ancestral territories launched the Alliance of Traditional Peoples and Communities: Guardians of the Atlantic Forest. The launch took place at the University of São Paulo Law School on National Atlantic Forest Day. The Atlantic forest is one of Brazil’s most threatened biomes.

Formed by representatives from indigenous and traditional peoples from across the country, the alliance was organized to represent and defend the Atlantic forest, as well as to fight for the territorial rights of these peoples and communities.

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“We are traditional peoples and communities, guardians of ancestral knowledge, which enables us to care for mother nature, her forests, rivers, lakes, and seas,” the alliance’s founding manifesto reads.

Ivanildes Kerexu, coordinator of the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission and a resident of the Rio Bonito Village in Ubatuba, São Paulo, said that the alliance is an initiative to unite peoples and to further protect this territory.

“We need to form this Atlantic forest alliance so that we can have the right to public policies and, of course, also for environmental preservation,” she said.

“What has preserved the Atlantic forest to this day has always been the traditional communities that live there and are resisting,” she added.

Federal Representative Sonia Guajajara, former Minister of Indigenous Peoples, who attended the launch ceremony, emphasized the role of the movement as a space for dialogue, reporting abuses, and building community.

“For us, it’s obvious – our daily struggle is not always understood by legal institutions. That is why these voices are needed every day, so that this message reaches everywhere, and is understood,” she declared.

In addition to the consequences of exploitation, mining, and deforestation, Guajajara argued, Brazil now faces an international threat linked to the exploitation of rare earths and critical minerals.

“If rare earths are exploited in the same way – without regard for rights, without safeguards, and without free, prior, and informed consultation – the consequences will be no different from what oil exploitation has meant for our peoples,” she went on to say.

For this reason, she noted, the creation of this coalition comes at a very opportune moment. “We are up against powerful structures – both economic and political – that have no desire whatsoever to understand what we do as a contribution to life on the planet. So, this forum of traditional communities in defense of the Atlantic forest is gaining strength at a key moment, a moment when more than half of the Atlantic forest has already been lost.”

Atlantic forest

Considered the common cradle of Brazilian history and biodiversity, the Atlantic forest is threatened by large-scale development projects and real estate speculation. Other factors that have also contributed to its destruction, according to members of the alliance, include exploitative tourism – particularly the construction of new resorts – the use of pesticides and the extraction of oil and fossil fuels.

Data on the biome reveal that only about 12.4 percent of its original vegetation remains today – vegetation that once covered 15 percent of Brazilian territory. Despite this, the forest still shelters over 20 thousand plant species and over 2 thousand vertebrate species, many of which exist nowhere else in the world.

The Atlantic forest is also vital to the economy and human life, as it provides water for more than 145 million Brazilians – that is, about 70 percent of Brazilians.