In Bolivia, Fires Have Ravaged Nearly a Million Hectares of Rainforest

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL -Oliver Rocha, Director of the Forest and Land Authority (ABT), said on Saturday that the area affected by the fire in Bolivia reached 950,000 hectares, and that the flames had destroyed 32 percent of the Chiquitano forest, where 1871 families in eleven communes and 35 indigenous communities were also affected.

However, Presidency Minister Juan Ramon Quintana welcomed on his Twitter account the operations of the American water bomber aircraft. After extinguishing the fires in the mountains near Ipiás (east), the plane is to be used over the hills of Tucavaca, in the Pantanal region, a plain that stretches across Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil.

“The third major operation will take place in the Otuquis mountains (south-east of the country), the fourth in Charagua, on the border with Paraguay, and the fifth in the north, towards the regions of San Matías, San Rafael, and San Miguel de Velasco,” added the minister, who coordinates the environmental emergency cabinet created to deal with the disaster.

More targeted operations always accompany supertanker rotations by military helicopters and, on land, by brigades composed of army soldiers, police officers, and civilian volunteers.

Evaldo Guzmán, a member of the forest rangers in Roboré (south-east), told AFP that of the ten households counted in the region, only two remained active but were under control. He said that the volunteer brigades were working to prevent further fire migrations. “We expect rain on Monday or Tuesday,” he added.

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Friday asked the countries that make up the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the future of the Amazon region.