TASK 7

La Chiquitania in flames: the biggest environmental disaster in Bolivia.

For three weeks, the Amazon jungle has suffered an alarming increase in forest fires that affect
Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. The images of what is considered the "lung of the planet" have
caused a global commotion. Environmental activists accuse the governments of these countries
for the uncontrollable burning of the forest reserve due to agricultural practices. Environmental
contamination in eastern Chiquitania has exceeded 310 micrograms per cubic meter due to
smoke, when the limits allowed by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 50 micrograms.

One of the worst environmental catastrophes shook the Chiquitania area of Santa Cruz, according
to preliminary reports, for three weeks the fire destroyed 744,000 hectares of forests, forest
reserves, crops and pastures. The fires also caused the death of wild animals and high
environmental pollution by carbon monoxide that exceeds 310 micrograms per cubic meter due to
smoke, when the limits allowed by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 50 micrograms. The
uncontrollable fires were recorded in the municipalities of Roboré, San Ignacio, , San Matias, San
Rafael and San José, doubling in just 15 days the number of hectares accumulated in seven months
due to fires in the department of Santa Cruz, according to what he explained. the Secretary of the
Environment of the Government of that department, Cinthia Asin.

"Up to July, approximately 310,000 hectares had been computed. In August, more than 340,000
(preliminary) hectares have been affected, that is, approximately 654,000 hectares have been
burned throughout the year. The protected areas that have been most affected are Tucavaca and
now it is Otuqui, which is being affected," he said. According to the report of the newspaper Los
Tiempos, five forest reserves are affected by the fires. According to preliminary reports, in the
reserves there are more than 554 species of animals, and more than 55 endemic plants (which
only grow in those places), the same ones that were affected by the fire. So far in August, more
than 40,000 sources of heat have been detected in the department of Santa Cruz, according to the
report of the Forest Fire Early Warning and Monitoring System (SATRIFO). Nationwide, in the
same period they reached 52 thousand sources of heat. According to the Minister of Defense,
Javier Zavaleta, 1,817 families were affected by the fire in Chiquitania and 8 houses were reported
destroyed, in 11 municipalities of Santa Cruz, in time to announce that 2,739 people from various
public, police and departmental military institutions and nationals, work against the clock to stop
the fire. For his part, the Minister of Rural Development and Land, César Cocarico, pointed out
that two thousand hectares of corn crops and 49 thousand of pastures were destroyed, for which
he announced that a thousand rolls of fodder will be purchased for ranchers and producers.

ECOLOGICAL DISASTERS

The environmental impact of the fire in the Chiquitania area is only compared to the disasters of
2010, when frost, drought and fire devastated almost 6 million hectares, throughout the national
territory. It should be noted that that year the Bolivian Amazon area (Beni and Santa Cruz) was
also affected due to agricultural practices that led to uncontrollable fires covering 1.5 million
hectares. In Bolivia, the average forest loss is 4 million hectares per year, which is why our country
is ranked among the 10 countries in the world with the highest deforestation of its tropical forests.
 According to the Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN) in "Report of fires and burns in Bolivia",
during the period from 2000 to 2013, a cumulative total of 32 million hectares were burned
throughout the country. "The years 2004, 2005 and 2010 recorded the largest number of burned
areas in Bolivia, exceeding 4 million hectares each year. Of this accumulated total (32 million
hectares burned), 30% (9.5 million hectares ) occurred in forest; the remaining 70% (22.4 million
ha) compromised coverage such as natural savannahs and anthropic areas. According to the
report, at the national level, the annual average of burned areas in forest is 676 thousand hectares
(± 695 thousand ha) The years 2004 and 2010 reported 1.5 and 2.7 million hectares in forest.

IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

According to FAN specialists, the damage caused by tropical forest fires can be very serious, since
they reduce the richness of species and the living biomass above ground, making them more
susceptible to repetitive burning. They also highlight that With the increase in droughts and global
warming, global food prices would decrease and become more expensive, environmental pollution
would increase, as well as the frequency of climatic phenomena such as more intense and out-of-
season storms. Burning a native forest not only degrades the biological diversity of forests, it also
affects human health through the emission of particulate matter and carbon monoxide. The WHO
has warned that microscopic pollutants in the air can penetrate the respiratory and circulatory
systems, damaging the lungs, heart and brain, and what is worse, it can cause premature death
from diseases such as cancer, stroke, heart and lung disease.

CROSS-BORDER FIRES

The Amazon, the largest tropical forest in the world and considered the lungs of the planet for its
work in extracting CO2 from the atmosphere in photosynthesis, has been burning for two weeks.
The fire threatens the lives of thousands of species of and flora. In addition, the ashes
contaminate the fresh water of the place.

According to the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), the number of fires registered
so far in the Amazon rainforest is already 60% higher than in the previous three years. "The peak
is related to deforestation and not to a stronger dry season as one might suppose," he points out.
The Amazon covers about 7.8 million square kilometers and is shared by Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, ,
French Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Forest fires in the tropical forests of South America are usually always intensify between the
months of August, September and October, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The
organization affirms that in this 2019 the dry season has been less severe than previous years and,
nevertheless, the number of fires has multiplied.

IPAM also recalls that fire is normally used to clear land after deforestation, open roads and
prepare land for cultivation. Often, a bad practice of these supposedly controlled burning causes
the fire to inadvertently spread to parts that did not want to be burned, which causes the fire.