After a long day of travel, 3 plane rides and one dusty car and a charter plane, we finally landed at Tangura a private ranch in Malto Grosso to explore the only fire research centre in the Amazon Rainforest. We were all a little bit nervous as we were going to participate in a fire experiment and film it at the same time. With the help of Prof Paolo Brando we headed off into the dry jungle with fuel tanks to set fire to a small area where they have been monitoring very precise burn-backs to determine the rainforests resilience to fire and to establish markers for modelling the future tipping points driven by fire. Bernice and Prof Cox both took to lighting the fire with the research crew and soon we were engulfed in flames and smoke - it was very hard to direct at this point, sign language at its best was all we had. The heat was extreme from a small area, and the smoke overwhelming. The burn back was quickly put out and we all raced for cold water, and fresh air. Not to make light of this shoot, the importance of this research is understanding the trees and plants most resilience to fire to help the scientists to understand the future of this amazing rainforest. Hot but all safe. Liz x
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