Now begins the biggest challenge of the Amazon fires: Putting them out

RIO DE JANEIRO — Millions in aid are being pledged. Hundreds of soldiers are heading into the jungle. The Amazon is burning — and the world has taken notice.

Now comes the hard part.

Firefighters walk a burned tract of the Amazon jungle
during an operation in Porto Velho on Sunday. 

The fight to quell the blazes will be waged not only in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth — an expanse so vast, dense and remote that many of the fires can be reached only by foot — but also in a country where the president is openly antagonizing the donors who are trying to help.

The twin challenges — one political, the other environmental — were feeding each other Monday, further muddying a response that activists and analysts stress must be broad and swift to temper what could be significant damage to the world’s most important forest.

The fires are not traditional in any sense. Most have been set intentionally, by farmers and loggers clearing land. The ground is not arid but sodden. And it’s not one big blaze but hundreds, many separated by wide distances. It will require a well-organized effort, analysts say, to stamp out the fires — and make sure they stay out.

Read the story from The Washington Post by Terrence McCoy and Marina Lopes - “Now begins the biggest challenge of the Amazon fires: Putting them out.”