The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) recommended on Thursday (29th) that the Union, the state of Pará, the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), and the National Fund for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) adopt urgent measures against the fires in Pará.
The main measure is the establishment of an Integrated Crisis Committee within five days, with representatives who have decision-making power, to coordinate the response to forest fires and their environmental, health, and humanitarian impacts in a centralized manner.
The bodies have ten days to inform whether they will comply with the recommendation and to send documents that prove the measures taken.
Pará leads the ranking
The MPF highlights that the situation is serious. Data from the Queimadas Program, by the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe), cited in the recommendation, show that:
• On Wednesday (28th), Pará was the state with the most active fires in the country. There were 435 fires, 140 potential fires, and 473 isolated burns.
• On Monday (26th) and Tuesday (27th), the state recorded 931 hotspots of fire, almost triple that of Maranhão, which came in second with 356.
• Between October 1st and 27th, there were 11,274 hotspots in Pará. In the same period, Amazonas had 2,173, Tocantins 1,705, Amapá 790, Acre 695, and Roraima 361.
The fires are concentrated in the south and west of the state. The municipalities with the most hotspots during the period were Uruará (886), São Félix do Xingu (842), Altamira (694), Portel (656), and Santarém (519). On October 26th, the western part of Pará had eight of the ten municipalities in the country with the most burn hotspots.
The state government's bulletin also points to hotspots within indigenous lands, such as Parque do Tumucumaque, Cachoeira Seca, Apyterewa, Munduruku, and Trincheira Bacajá.
There are still outbreaks in federal conservation units, such as the Jamanxim National Forest, the Tapajós Environmental Protection Area, the Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractive Reserve, the Altamira National Forest, and the Rio Trombetas Biological Reserve.
In the Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractive Reserve, the fires affected 24 communities and exposed 3,150 families to smoke.
Smoke covers Santarém
The recommendation highlights the situation in Santarém, covered by dense and constant smoke. On Wednesday (28th), the municipality declared an environmental emergency due to the poor air quality and prohibited the use of fire, including for cleaning areas.
On the same day, monitoring by the Federal University of Western Pará (Ufopa) classified the air quality in the city as "very bad". The municipality itself advised the population to avoid going out during peak smoke concentration hours.
The Public Ministry reminds that exposure to smoke is linked to asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and cardiovascular problems. The most affected are children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with respiratory diseases.
The fires also harm the local economy, with an impact on tourism, commerce and the income of freelancers and informal workers.
Criminal fires and threats
The document contains reports of deliberately set fires and threats to those working to combat fires:
• New Repartimento: a used pickup truck used in serving the indigenous people of the Parakanã Indigenous Land was set on fire on October 1st. On October 26th, a new fire affected the vegetation along the BR-422, near the villages. The following day, audio recordings with insults and threats of armed conflict against the indigenous people for political-electoral reasons circulated. Funai employees report fear of conducting inspections without police escort.
• Tapajós National Forest: an ICMBio agent reported that a farmer intentionally set fire to the São Jorge region, and that firefighters were threatened. ICMBio requested support from the Independent Environmental Policing Company of Santarém, which stated that it could not help due to a restriction imposed by the Pará State Public Security Secretariat (Segup) on joint participation in federal environmental inspections.
• Munduruku Indigenous Territory of Takuara: The Munduruku Indigenous Council of Takuara has denounced a series of alleged criminal fires since September 22, near the BR-163 highway. According to the council, the fires are linked to the pressure exerted by land grabbers, loggers, and farmers opposed to the demarcation of the territory.
• Marajó Archipelago: Residents of Vila Joviniano Pantoja, between Anajás and Santa Cruz do Arari, are facing active fire outbreaks since October 14.
Omissions persist
The Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) emphasizes that a technical note from the Inpe (National Institute of Meteorology), Inmet, the Centro Gestor e Operacional do Sistema de Proteção da Amazônia (Censipam), and the Fundação Cearense de Meteorologia e Recursos Hídricos (Funceme) already predicted, with more than 90% probability, a persistent El Niño until the beginning of 2027.
Subsequently, the forecast was raised to 100%, with the possibility of the phenomenon reaching the "very strong" category. The government of Pará itself declared a climate and environmental alert throughout the state on August 24.
The recommendation also cites the actions regarding fires under analysis in the Supreme Federal Court (STF), including Arguições de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental (ADPFs) 743, 746 and 857. In May 2026, the STF ordered the Union and the states of the Amazon Legal to prepare for El Niño. For the Ministério Público Federal (MPF), even with these decisions, the current situation shows that the Union and the state of Pará continue to fail in addressing the problem.
The document also states that indigenous peoples and traditional communities suffer the effects of the climate crisis disproportionately. The recommendation frames this situation as environmental racism.
What the Ministério Público Federal (MPF) recommends
To the Union, together with Ibama, ICMBio, Funai and the state of Pará:
• Establish, within five days, the Integrated Crisis Committee, with meetings at least weekly or bi-weekly.
• Include in the committee the ministries of Environment, Development and Social Assistance and Indigenous Peoples, as well as the National Supply Company (Conab), Ibama, ICMBio and Funai.
• Invite the most affected municipalities, particularly from the south and west regions of the state.
• Continuously listen to indigenous peoples and traditional communities organizations, respecting the cultural particularities of each people.
• Publish all acts and operations of the committee on official portals.
• Immediately dispatch reinforcements of firefighters, environmental inspectors, Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, and National Guard, including aircraft, vehicles, personal protective equipment (PPE), and other equipment, prioritizing areas with the highest concentrations of fires.
To the state of Pará:
• Ensure that the Military Police and the Civil Police support federal inspection and firefighting operations, without refusing assistance on the grounds that the area is federal, and protect teams in conflict zones.
• Prioritize the deployment of the Fire Department and the Civil Defense to the most critical regions and provide humanitarian assistance to affected communities.
• Do not demobilize teams while there are critical risk alerts from INPE, CENSIPAM, or the National Fire Information System (Sisfogo).
• Disseminate daily air quality information in regions and municipalities in "bad," "very bad," "unhealthy," or "dangerous" conditions, and issue extraordinary alerts during critical events.
• Produce bulletins in accessible language and appropriate for the cultures of indigenous peoples and communities.
• Disseminate health protocols for respiratory and cardiovascular problems caused by smoke, with particular attention to children under 5, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, or immunosuppression.
Next steps
With this recommendation, the agencies are officially aware of the problem and cannot claim ignorance if they fail to act. If the agencies do not respond within the deadline, the Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) will consider them to have rejected the recommendation. If they do not adopt the measures, the MPF may take administrative measures and file lawsuits in civil and criminal courts against those who fail to act.
The recommendation cites investigations that are being conducted in official letters from the Ministério Público Federal (MPF) in Belém, Santarém, and Altamira, as well as in the Grupo de Apoio ao Núcleo Povos da Floresta, do Campo e das Águas e Atuação Especializada Socioambiental (Gapovoss) of the institution.
Full text of the recommendation