Help.NGO's Critical Role in Responding to the 2024 Wildfires in Peru
- Matthew Cua | Innovation and IT Director
- May 4
- 8 min read
In late 2024, Peru experienced a wave of devastating wildfires that peaked in September and October, ravaging both Amazonian and Andean regions. The fires scorched tens of thousands of hectares of land across 22 of Peru’s 24 departments and claimed at least 20 lives by early October. What began in August as isolated blazes exploded into a nationwide crisis by mid-September, prompting declarations of emergency in multiple regions. Dense smoke blanketed cities and villages, forcing airport closures and threatening public health. These wildfires, unprecedented in their geographic spread and intensity, underscore the interplay of extreme climatic conditions and human-induced deforestation pressures. They also highlight gaps in preparedness and the urgent need to address underlying drivers such as climate change and Amazon deforestation.
The wildfires primarily impacted regions like Ucayali, Madre de Dios, Loreto, and Pucallpa, where massive deforestation occurred due to agricultural expansion, especially cattle farming and illegal mining. Pucallpa’s local communities also suffered, with significant effects on biodiversity and air quality. While the Peruvian government, international organizations, and civil society groups mobilized efforts to contain the fires, the scale of the disaster proved difficult to control. The fires highlighted growing concerns over climate change and deforestation in the Amazon, which exacerbate such environmental crises.
The environmental impact was severe: not only was there widespread biodiversity loss, but the fires also released large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. The air quality in affected areas deteriorated, negatively impacting the health of nearby populations.
The impact on biodiversity has been especially devastating. Peru’s forests—renowned for their rich ecological diversity—harbor countless species, many of them endangered or found nowhere else on Earth. As the fires tore through vast landscapes, wildlife suffered en masse. In the dry forests of the north, spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus), already listed as threatened, were driven from their habitats by advancing flames; some, disoriented and desperate, wandered into towns and were tragically shot by startled residents. In the southern Amazon, jaguars and other forest species had nowhere to escape. Conservation patrols found animals burned alive or charred in the trees—haunting evidence of an ecosystem pushed to the brink.
Ecologists issued urgent warnings: the destruction of forest cover in key watershed areas threatens to dry up vital streams and springs, endangering not only wildlife but also the water supply for local communities. In one especially tragic case, park officials reported that a blaze in the Amazonas region destroyed a critical habitat that an Indigenous community had been preserving for over two decades as a private conservation area—20 years of growth erased in a matter of days.
Help.NGO's Rapid Response and Technological Deployment
In response to this urgent situation, Help.NGO deployed an operations team to the City of Pucallpa on the Ucayali River basin in the Amazonian rainforest of eastern Peru. Equipped with drones and Starlink, the team provided operational support to local response teams and communities, helping them assess the damage with specific, quantifiable data. This technology enabled team was able to understand the extent of the fires, track their progression, and support the decision makers of responders and communities in an efficient and effective manner.
Technologies Deployed: Pioneering Solutions for Disaster Response
During the wildfires, Help.NGO deployed a suite of cutting-edge technologies to optimize response efforts, including DJI M30T and M3T drones, low earth orbit internet Starlink antennas, and drone data processing and visualization software WEBODM running on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
DJI M30T and M3T Drones:
The drones, particularly the DJI M30T and M3T, were vital for ground-based teams to monitor and assess the situation.
DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise Thermal (M3T)
Help.NGO uses the Mavic 3 Enterprise platform extensively as its core versatile drone platform. The Mavic 3 Enterprise Thermal (M3T) is part of the Mavic 3 Enterprise series of drones that has a thermal camera with an equivalent focal length of 40mm and a resolution of 640x512 that allows a point and area temperature measurement key in fire detection and monitoring operations. At the same time with its 12 MP camera it can also provide basic surveying capabilities capable of surveying 2 square kilometers in around 45 minutes.
DJI Mavic 30 Enterprise Thermal (M30T)
Help.NGO use the Mavic 30 Enterprise platform when faced with more challenging conditions as the Mavic 30 series has an IP55 rating allowing operational teams to operate in adverse conditions. Forest fires can cause localized extreme weather with dust and ash mixed in, and the M30T shines in these kinds of environment. The M30T also has a 1,200 meter smart laser range finder and a 48MP upto 16x optical and 200x zoom allowing the team to provide more detailed information to firefighting commanders.
Help.NGO provided the Civil Defense of Pucallpa with advise of purchasing drones allowing them to experience and understand the various operational capabilities of drones.
Low Earth Satellite Connectivity:
Help.NGO deployed the latest in satellite communication system the Standard Actuated (rev3) Starlink satellite antenna that connects to Low Earth Orbit Satellites. Allowing the field team with drones being able to communicate with the command center by providing up to date information, photos and videos.
The Starlink Standard Actuated system only has a very managable power consumption of 50-75W and is able to be powered by a pure sine wave inverter of 200W connected to the vehicle.
Help.NGO together with the civil defense and fire fighters in remote regions where it is regular to take a day of hard off-road driving and where traditional communication networks were non-existent. The ability of Starlink to be deployed quickly with the ability to connect to the internet in less than 10 minutes allows the team to be flexible in collecting and sharing data from the drones.
Open Drone Mapper:
The OpenDroneMap ecosystem is an open-source drone mapping solution. Most organizations, especially non-profit organizations and organizations in developing nations, face critical challenges with their current drone processing and visualization workflows as bundled drone processing software and licenses impose significant budgetary strain. OpenDroneMap not only provides an open-source solution but also offers several extensions such as WebODM that creates a user-friendly web-based application to upload, process, configure and visualize drone data.
The 2D visual maps ,digital elevation maps as well as 3D models generated and visualized by WebODM the enabled the field team to visualize the extent of the wildfires and make tactical decisions on what to do and at the same time allowed decision makers at the command center make strategic decisions.
Help.NGO deployed WebODM on AWS Amazon EC2 in the cloud. We deployed WebODM on a C6i.2xlarge Amazon EC2 instance together with a 2TB EBS with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as its operating system for this mission at the Sao Paolo Region in South America. We chose the C6i.2xlarge as the instance that costs between $198.36 ~ $381.52/mon region and to balance speed of processing while managing costs. The faster that WebODM can process, the faster it allows the team to see the results of their flights. By using WebODM we were able to reduce costs from the leading UAS Cloud processing provider by 85%.
OSM and HOTOSM Collaboration
The OpenStreetMap (OSM) Peru Team led by Johnattan Rupir were actively working with the local communities in the Ucayali region specifically with the Shipibo – Konibo Native Community of Santa Clara de Yarinacocha and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOTOSM) Team introduced them to the operational team of Help.NGO to support the ongoing work of OSM Peru especially in collecting additional drone imagery in the area especially areas already damaged by the fires. OSM Peru team was also instrumental in supporting Help.NGO coordinate and gain additional authorization in various logistical and operational requirements on the ground.
To support the ground work done HOTOSM donated cellphones to the local community through partner Johnattan Rupire (OSM Peru), which community members used to map community vulnerabilities to fires, and which will be used in future mapping exercises for community-based disaster risk management.
Help.NGO was able to survey over 30 square kilometers and has made them available online through OpenAerialMap.
You can find the aerial maps such as Isla San Francisco, Pucallpa, Peru at this link.
Collaboration with Local Government Entities: OEFA and the Secretary of Civil Protection
The success of Help.NGO’s response was amplified by close cooperation with local authorities such as the OEFA (Environmental Evaluation and Supervision Agency) and the Secretary of Civil Protection / Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia Regional - COER.
OEFA: With its mandate for environmental supervision, OEFA utilized the geospatial data and maps provided by Help.NGO to more accurately assess deforestation and environmental damage, supporting the enforcement of regulations against illegal mining and agriculture activities.
Damage Assessment: The detailed maps allowed OEFA to quickly evaluate the extent of the destruction, facilitating policy-making and long-term mitigation strategies.
Secretary of Civil Protection / Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia Regional - COER.: This agency, responsible for managing emergency responses, benefited from the technological support provided by Help.NGO, such as satellite communication and real-time mapping. This improved coordination between agencies and allowed for better decision-making regarding resource allocation and evacuation planning.
Partner Collaboration: A Key to Success
The success of this project is a testament to the strength of the partnerships of Help.NGO
We would like to thank the following private partners:
AWS Disaster Response Team and the various AWS volunteers for their guidance in architecture design and working with us in the field as well as financially supporting this operation.
MAD Services for providing subject matter expertise (SME) in developing and deploying the various Edge and UAS processing solutions.
Starlink for providing the LEO connectivity as well as technical support
Their generosity was integral to the project’s success.
Written by :
Matthew Aligaen Cua, Innovation Director at HELP.NGO and an Adjunct Faculty at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). With a background in integrating technology into humanitarian efforts, Matthew has led numerous missions worldwide, focusing on enhancing disaster response through innovative solutions.
Andrés Guevara, Deputy Director of Operations at Help.NGO. He has more than a decade in experience in leading teams and organizations in emergency management, firefighting. first aid and disaster risk reduction activities worldwide. Mr. Guevera, not only holds an Emergency Trauma Bag Trainer certificate he also holds a UAS license and has more than 5,000 hours of flight experience teaching practitioners worldwide. He is passionate about integrating technology in humanitarian efforts while looking tacticool with it.
Matthew Silver, U.S.-based Research Consultant at Help.NGO. He supports the organization’s global operations by leading critical research initiatives, overseeing communications quality, and advancing strategic development efforts across multiple domains. Matthew holds a B.S. in Sociocultural Anthropology and Political Science from Colgate University and is passionate about applying rigorous analysis to humanitarian efforts, bridging academic insight with real-world impact.
Contact Information:
Email: mcua@aim.edu, matt@help.ngo
For more information on HELP.NGO’s work, please visit www.help.ngo.
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