For several weeks, media around the world have reported extensively on the great fires that are ravaging the Amazon. The team of the Community of Saint Paul in Cochabamba tells us how this misfortune is particularly affecting Bolivia.
For two months now, several wildfires invade one of the greenest lungs in Bolivia. The news talk about more than two million hectares burned in the area of the Amazon, the Chiquitanía and the Bolivian Chaco. It is a environmental disaster for the fauna and the flora of the region, as well as a humanitarian crisis, for the indigenous people who inhabit those lands, who are losing everything.
Every year, at this time, “chaqueos”, or controlled burning, are carried out to prepare the land for planting or for raising cattle. Normally they do not get out of human control, but this year the Bolivian government has approved a controversial decree that promotes the extension of the agricultural frontier in forest areas allowing “controlled burning” and the settlement of new settlers from other areas of the country. This has caused the traditional burning to get out of control, causing, to a large degree, the present situation.
Several instances in the country, including the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, are crying out for the government to declare a national emergency in the affected areas, and to open up to the international help of experts to control the fires. In addition, to curb this environmental catastrophe, many voices also call for the immediate banning of the chaqueos as well as the uncontrolled installation of new farmers in the areas not suitable for agriculture. We hope that measures will be taken immediately and urgently to stop this tragedy, that is so badly affecting the country.
For two months now, several wildfires invade one of the greenest lungs in Bolivia. The news talk about more than two million hectares burned in the area of the Amazon, the Chiquitanía and the Bolivian Chaco. It is a environmental disaster for the fauna and the flora of the region, as well as a humanitarian crisis, for the indigenous people who inhabit those lands, who are losing everything.
Every year, at this time, “chaqueos”, or controlled burning, are carried out to prepare the land for planting or for raising cattle. Normally they do not get out of human control, but this year the Bolivian government has approved a controversial decree that promotes the extension of the agricultural frontier in forest areas allowing “controlled burning” and the settlement of new settlers from other areas of the country. This has caused the traditional burning to get out of control, causing, to a large degree, the present situation.
Several instances in the country, including the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, are crying out for the government to declare a national emergency in the affected areas, and to open up to the international help of experts to control the fires. In addition, to curb this environmental catastrophe, many voices also call for the immediate banning of the chaqueos as well as the uncontrolled installation of new farmers in the areas not suitable for agriculture. We hope that measures will be taken immediately and urgently to stop this tragedy, that is so badly affecting the country.
