The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), an agency linked to the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), launched last Tuesday (1/6) a tender for the purchase of aircraft e helicopters to be used in fighting forest fires in federal conservation units and their surroundings, with an investment of around R$ 115 million.
There will be 16 planes for direct combat against forest fires and up to 8 helicopters for logistical to the brigade . The objective of the contract is to the ground teams in occurrences within the period of environmental emergency during the dry season.
With 500 hours of flight time, Air Tractor aircraft are capable of relea to 2.500 liters of water per trip. They will be distributed among the bases in Cuiabá (MT), Brasília (DF), Santana do Riacho (MG) and Lençóis (BA) and can be used to reinforce firefighting in any other area of the national territory.
The helicopters will be distributed between the bases in Brasília (DF) and Belo Horizonte (MG) and will have 420 flight hours. In the case of Air Tractors, the acquisition represents an increase of 60% compared to the previous year.
Among the main contributions of helicopters are reaching areas of difficult access, moving servers and loads with greater agility and ing aerial monitoring of protected areas.
The Air Tractors contribute, in particular, with water launches, which can fight fires directly, or just soften the intensity of the heat and the height of the flames, in order to delay the advance of the lines of fire and allow the action of the fighters in soil more effectively.
The measure is part of the actions for preventing and combating forest fires that have been carried out by ICMBio in view of the seasonal drought and is in line with the brigade training, controlled burns, vehicle acquisition, hiring more than 130 brigade for the Pronto Emprego Brigade, formed for immediate action to operate in all biomes in Brazil, in addition to more than a thousand brigade for local operations.
Street: Ministry of the Environment
