2024-10-02 23:01:30
The Bolivian government declared this Monday a “national disaster” due to the unprecedented forest fires that mainly affect Santa Cruz, the richest and most populated department in the country.
The decree will allow international aid to be channeled and economic resources transferred from the central government to the departmental governments.
President Luis Arce signed the rule that “declares a situation of national disaster, due to the magnitude of impact of the damage caused by the presence of fires in the national territory.” The Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, read the decree at an event in Santa Cruz in which Arce was present.
The last official report from the executive branch, from early September, warned that 3.8 million hectares of forests and grasslands have been destroyed in the country.
However, the governorate of Santa Cruz, the most affected by the fires, reported that in this region alone 7.2 million hectares had already been consumed as of last week, a figure that exceeds the 4.2 million reported in 2019.
According to departmental authorities, it would be the “largest environmental disaster” suffered in that region, which is home to 27% of the national population.
Another affected department is Beni, in the Bolivian Amazon, in the northeast of the country.
In 2019, fires destroyed 5.7 million hectares nationwide, according to the state forest and land control authority (ABT).
According to the Amazon Regional Observatory, in the last five years fire has destroyed nearly half a million hectares of the Amazon, particularly in Brazil and Bolivia.
Arce urged the Parliament, controlled by the opposition, to approve at least two international credits with the CAF (Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, former Andean Development Corporation) and the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) to confront the situation. disaster in the amount of 325 million dollars.
«We encourage all national assembly members: deputies, senators (…). It is now in your hands to enable these resources,” Arce said in a statement to the media.
Burning forests is an ancient practice among Bolivian farmers, which begins between the months of March and April and lasts until September and October.
This year, drought, low rainfall and climate change have caused the fires to expand, Jhonny Rojas, an official in the Santa Cruz governorate, said Friday.
© Agence France-Presse