Bolivia wildfires burn record area, scorching homes and farms

8/10/2024 6:18

        Wildfires in Bolivia have burned through more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) this year, mostly in the country's tropical east, smashing records for its worst-ever fire season and scorching an area the size of Iceland or Cuba.
        
        The new figures released on Monday by non-governmental organization Tierra Foundation represent the equivalent of nearly 19 million American football fields. Fires in recent months have propelled Bolivia past devastating fire years in 2010 and 2019.
        
        Santa Cruz, a wealthy farming region in the country's eastern lowlands near Brazil, has been the hardest hit, accounting for almost 7 million hectares of the total, followed by the nearby department of Beni, with 3 million hectares.
        
        "What's happened in recent months in eastern Bolivia, and will continue to occur at least through October, is a disaster of a magnitude unprecedented in the country," Juan Pablo Chumacero, researcher at the Tierra Foundation, told reporters.
        
        "This catastrophe is affecting the lives of thousands of households, farmers and Indigenous people, many of whom have been displaced due to the loss of their homes, crops and livelihoods, as well as contamination of air and water sources."