Bolivia battles vast fires as Brazil’s Amazon crisis captures world attention
- Like his Brazilian counterpart, Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales has been criticised for his land-clearing policies
While global attention has been focused on fires burning across the Brazilian Amazon, neighbouring Bolivia is battling its own vast blazes, which have charred an area nearly as extensive as the nation of Lebanon.
At least 38,793 fires were burning across the country as of the weekend, and a total of 9,580 sq km had been burned so far this year, according to Cliver Rocha, director of the national Forests and Lands Authority.
While some of the fires were burning in Bolivia’s share of the Amazon, the largest blazes were in the Chiquitania region of southeastern Bolivia, a zone of dry forest, farmland and open prairies that has seen an expansion of farming and ranching in recent years.
The College of Biologists in the capital, La Paz, has estimated that the fires have destroyed US$1.1 billion worth of timber.
President Evo Morales, who has been under criticism for an allegedly slow response to the fires, has interrupted his re-election campaign to help oversee firefighting efforts involving more than 3,500 people, including soldiers, police and volunteers.
