2.5 Million Acres Burned So Far In 2021 In Bolivia, Through Scrub, Pantanal & Rainforests
Forest fires in Bolivia are showing no sign of abating, with blazes sweeping through ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest, Chaco scrubland, Chiquitanía savanna, and Pantanal wetland. With almost 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) burned to date this year, experts are warning of a repeat of the devastation of recent years. In 2019, fires tore through nearly 6 million hectares (15 million acres), while in 2020 4 million hectares (10 million acres) burned.
The department of Santa Cruz, in eastern Bolivia, is the worst-hit region this year, with nearly 790,000 hectares (2 million acres) burned as of the end of August, according Yovenka Rosado, the department’s forest fire program coordinator. Fires in the region have spread into protected areas, including the San Matías Integrated Management Natural Area (IMNA), Ñembi Guasu Area of Conservation and Ecological Importance, and the recently created Bajo Paraguá San Ignacio de Velasco Municipal Protected Area.
Part of the Ñembi Guasu protected area following a forest fire. Image courtesy of Fundación NATIVA.
“In the last two weeks, hotspots have intensified and become large-scale fires,” said Miguel Vargas, executive director of the Center for Legal Studies and Social Research (CEJIS), which monitors the fires by satellite. This year’s most impacted ecosystems, Vargas said, are in the Chaco and Chiquitanía regions. The burning in the San Matías IMNA began in early August, with 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) reportedly destroyed in the space of just one week. The rapid spread of the fires was fanned by dry weather conditions.
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Bolivia’s forest fires have also crossed the country’s border and spread into Paraguay. José Luis Cartes, executive director of the conservation NGO Guyra Paraguay, said the burning has reached the Paraguayan Pantanal Reserve and Los Tres Gigantes Biological Station. “In a single night, the blaze traveled 25 kilometers [15.5 miles] in these areas,” he said.
Satellite images show the areas devastated by fire in San Matías. Image courtesy of the Chiquitano Dry Forest Observatory.
The fires burned for four days before being doused by rain that fell on Aug. 26. Cartes said that during the 2019 fires, “everything burned very quickly,” with the blaze lasting until November that year. This time, he said, Guyra Paraguay is working with the NATIVA Foundation to protect the most extensive nature reserves in both countries. Iván Arnold, director of NATIVA, said the fire that started in the north of Ñembi Guasu crossed the reserve to the south and spread into Paraguay. And although rains helped to contain the spread of the flames, the coming months could be the most critical. “We are still highly vulnerable. The problem are the people who light fires,” he said.
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https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/fires-leave-trail-of-dead-wildlife-scorched-land-in-bolivias-protected-areas/