Latest news Catastrophic fires in Bolivia: destroyed area larger than Portugal
The devastating fires in Bolivia have destroyed an area larger than Portugal. According to the National Institute for Agrarian Reform (Inra), around ten million hectares of land have been destroyed this year. The data confirms the largest environmental disaster ever recorded in Bolivia, as reported by the newspaper "El Deber". According to Inra, almost 60 percent of the fires affected forests and 40 percent pastures. According to the report, 6.3 million hectares burned last year.
According to data from the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (Inpe), which is responsible for satellite monitoring, the number of fires has more than tripled compared to the same period last year. No other South American country has had to contend with such a drastic increase. According to Inpe, there have been over 85,500 fires in the Andean country so far this year - the highest number since records began in 1998.
Deforested areas are often set on fire to create new pastures and farmland. The drought associated with climate change favors the spread of fires. Bolivia's government declared a national state of disaster two weeks ago in order to provide more money to fight the fires. The non-governmental organization Fundación Tierra describes 2024 as "the year of the worst environmental disaster in Bolivia's history".
Volunteer firefighters battle the flames in Santa Cruz
The eastern region of Santa Cruz is the worst affected. There, in a small village within the Valle de Tucavaca nature reserve, volunteer firefighters have been battling the flames for months. "There are very few professional firefighters here, if it wasn't for the volunteers, a lot more forest would have burned down by now," German biologist Steffen Reichle told the German Press Agency.
As a villager, he and other volunteers help to procure equipment and funding. "Five years ago, people had no training and no equipment, they went into the burning forest with shorts, flip-flops and a bucket of water," Reichle says. "Now at least they have proper firefighting equipment."
SDA
