Loss and Damage Collaboration (L&DC)

Caroline Camilo Dantas – @clarolissa – is a photographer, cultural producer, and volunteer forest firefighter with the @guardioesdacafuringa from Brazil our founder Erin Roberts, @thereallifeofrin, met in #Brasilia at a workshop on #LossAndDamage in the context of wildfires in the #Amazon convened by @fundacionavina, the Building Approaches to fund local Solutions with climate Evidence (BASE), My Climate Risk and others.

Caroline’s “Why” will humble you : “I feel rich when I preserve what really matters: water, oxygen and food.” 🌱

She also says that being a forest firefighter is not about heroism: “It’s about protecting the bio-industries of life: nature itself.”

But they are heroes that are often left alone. Many firefighters in Brazil are volunteers — paying for their own gear, their fuel, even risking their lives with no protection or pay.

In 2019, Caroline and her partner paid a high price when flames surrounded her home. While helping elderly neighbours escape, her partner, (@paulinholimabsb) was severely burned.

“Fire, worsened by climate change, has become increasingly devastating. In the last 10 years, we’ve seen springs dry up and wetlands disappear.”

Still, Caroline continues to fight — for life.

The Cafuringa Institute (@institutocafuringa_icaf) she founded with her partner in 2019 works on three priority fronts in nature conservation, especially in the #Cerrado #biome: environmental education, integrated fire management practices, including direct fire fighting and cultural areas associated with the issues experienced in the territory.

The #Cerrado #biome is one of the most important savannas on Earth. It helps regulate our climate, storing vast amounts of carbon deep in its soils. But half of its native vegetation has already been destroyed by unsustainable agricultural expansion. The result? More fires, more droughts, and fewer springs to feed life.

Without a Fund for Responding to #LossAndDamage (#FRLD) that can respond quickly to climate intensified disasters like wildfires, communities like the ones in #Cerrado will be left picking up the bill for a #ClimateCrisis they did little or nothing to cause.