Above: The Friboi firefighting team in Pedra Preta monitor and tackle fires in the Pantanal

JBS is investing in an innovative project to prevent and fight fires in the Pantanal region of Brazil. The initiative uses artificial intelligence to obtain information from satellites, camera imaging, meteorological data, and history of fires in the region to issue real-time alerts of fire outbreaks. The initiative expects to prevent more than 50% of fires through early detection and immediate response, with fires being detected within three minutes.

The project was designed to cover 2 million hectares in the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. Part of the Pantanal and the transition regions with the Cerrado and the Amazon will be monitored in real time by the solution developed by the start-up Um Grau e Meio, one of the five Brazilian start-ups selected to present environmental solutions at COP26, which took place in November in Glasgow.

The project also supports firefighting teams on the frontline of forest fire outbreaks. JBS has invested in five exclusive teams of the Aliança Firefighting Team, who are a part of the organization, Aliança da Terra, which has bases in the municipalities of Anastácio (MS), Pedra Preta, Poconé, Cáceres and Araputanga (MT). These highly trained firefighting teams, with the support of the US Forestry Service (USFS), are equipped with cutting-edge technology to ensure fires are tackled in an efficient and safe manner.

When not tackling fires, the Aliança Firefighting Teams visit the farms to educate farmers about prevention techniques, instructing them on how to properly deal with fires and providing fire team training for farmers and their employees.

“These resources and satellite information are a massive step forward in detecting outbreaks”, said Liège Correia, Sustainability Director at Friboi. For Márcio Nappo, Sustainability Director at JBS, actions like this benefit from the entire value chain, as fires devastate the ecosystem, damage rural properties and pump polluting gases into the atmosphere. JBS has committed to investing R$26 million in the Pantanal over the next four years.