In 2025, Brazil took a decisive step toward transforming its capacity to prevent and respond to wildfires, particularly in the Amazon and Pantanal biomes. After years of high vulnerability—characterized by fragmented resources and limited coordination across levels of government—the country approved Law No. 15.143/2025, a landmark reform that modernizes financing instruments and enables states and municipalities to access resources more swiftly for wildfire prevention, preparedness, and response.

Building on this law, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA), through the National Environment Fund (FNMA), launched in June 2025 the FNMA Call for Proposals No. 1/2025, with a total budget of BRL 32 million. The call aims to strengthen priority municipalities for wildfire prevention and response in the Amazon and Pantanal by supporting Municipal Operational Plans for Wildfire Prevention and Response (PPCIF), including funding for equipment, supplies, and specialized services.

The results of the call have already been published: 31 municipalities were selected out of 62 applicants, with 26 located in the Amazon biome and 5 in the Pantanal. This represents a concrete step toward decentralizing resources and strengthening local capacities to prevent and respond to wildfires.

Selected municipalities

Bioma Amazônia (26): Apuí; Manicoré; São Félix do Xingu; Lábrea; Itaituba; Jacareacanga; Juína; Querência; Rurópolis; Juara; Placas; Rio Branco; Rondon do Pará; Nova Bandeirantes; Conquista D’Oeste; Cláudia; Feijó; Comodoro; Ulianópolis; Trairão; Bom Jesus do Araguaia; Pacajá; Feliz Natal; Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade; Dom Eliseu; Marcelândia. 

Bioma Pantanal (5):  Porto Murtinho; Barão de Melgaço; Corumbá; Sonora; Mirassol D’Oeste. 

This new legal framework and the implementation of the federal call open an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen community brigades, protect strategic ecosystems, and safeguard local livelihoods—enhancing Brazil’s ability to address the growing impacts of the climate crisis.

A strategic collaboration process

The BASE Initiative, coordinated by Fundación Avina, played a key role in articulating efforts among the National Congress, the MMA, and civil society organizations, creating a space of trust and strategic analysis that helped accelerate decision-making at a critical legislative moment. When a Provisional Measure aimed at strengthening wildfire financing risked expiring, Avina facilitated a collaboration between the MMA and the consultancy Pulso Público, which provided real-time legislative intelligence, stakeholder mapping, and political guidance.

This technical support contributed to the approval of the new law and to the consolidation of a national agenda on wildfire prevention and response. The work later expanded into a broader political mapping that now brings together parliamentarians, mayors, and other subnational actors, fostering the institutionalization of the issue, resource mobilization, and the organization of public hearings in Congress.

Potential impacts for communities and ecosystems

The combination of the new legal framework, the federal call already underway, and the political articulation established points toward the consolidation of a more robust system capable of financing wildfire prevention and response in Brazil in a continuous and strategic manner.

This progress has the potential to:

  • Strengthen community brigades and improve their working conditions;

  • Protect critical ecosystems that regulate water cycles, climate, and biodiversity;

  • Reduce risks and losses for rural communities, Indigenous Peoples, and family farmers;

  • Integrate climate evidence into public policy design and budgetary decisions.

Through this process, the BASE Initiative reaffirms its commitment to connecting knowledge, actors, and strategies so that the most vulnerable territories can confront the climate crisis with greater justice, effectiveness, and resilience.