Forest fires are currently concentrated in eastern Bolivia and to date the fire has already consumed more than a million hectares of forests and grasslands, reported the Deputy Minister of Civil Defense, Juan Carlos Calvimontes.
“94% of forest fires are concentrated in the departments of Beni and Santa Cruz,” he said, in contact with the state channel Bolivia TV.
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The fires have already affected an area of more than one million hectares, of which 308,983 correspond to forests and 766,780 hectares to dry grasslands and bushes, according to data from the Ministry of the Environment.
The Bolivian authority explained that the fire in the Aguaragüe mountain range in Tarija, on the border with Argentina, has already been controlled.
The joint command against forest fires has already dealt with 72 fires to date, the majority in Santa Cruz.
In 2019, the country faced an environmental disaster when forest fires consumed close to six million hectares of forest and grasslands in the Bolivian Amazon.
With information from Sputnik