Forest fires in Bolivian region consumed 147,254 hectares this year

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Forest fires consumed 147,254 hectares this year in the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz, bordering Brazil, the governor’s office of that region reported on Saturday.

“At the departmental level, we already have 147,254 hectares affected by forest fires,” Yovenka Rosado, coordinator of the Forest Fire Program of that governor’s office, said in a press statement.

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The most affected sectors are the areas of San Matías and Roboré, near the border with Brazil.

“In the places that register flames above 5 meters, with smoke columns of 30 meters high, we are going to make water discharges with the [military helicopter] Superpuma so that it can lower the intensity of the flames,” added Rosado. He also said that emergency personnel and machinery were displaced to the site.

In San Matías, a natural park was at risk of being affected.

Rosado explained that in the first days of August, “831 fire outbreaks were registered and so far this year 15,555”.

Forest fires have been burning in Bolivia since the middle of the year due to deforestation that allows the agricultural and livestock frontier expansion. Every year Bolivia usually faces problems caused by new settlers or companies seeking to expand their production.

The NGO Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN) estimated that forest fires destroyed more than 2.3 million hectares of forests and grasslands in 2020. Huge fires across the Bolivian Amazon ravaged 6.4 million hectares in 2019, according to FAN.