{"id":318519,"date":"2021-08-08T11:59:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T08:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/forest-fires-in-bolivia-consume-vast-area-official\/"},"modified":"2021-08-08T11:59:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T08:59:54","slug":"forest-fires-in-bolivia-consume-vast-area-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/forest-fires-in-bolivia-consume-vast-area-official\/","title":{"rendered":"#Forest fires in Bolivia consume vast area: official"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Forest fires in Bolivia consume vast area: official<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Firefighters
\n Firefighters try to extinguish a grass fire near the Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia on August 1, 2021; the department has been hard hit by forest fires.
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Forest fires this year have consumed more than 147,000 hectares (360,000 acres) in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz department, the regional government reported Saturday.<\/p>\n

As in neighboring Brazil, the fires have been aggravated by widespread deforestation aimed at expanding farming or pasture land.<\/p>\n

And they come in a year when climate change has become an increasingly urgent issue with mammoth wildfires in the Western US as well as in Greece and Turkey.<\/p>\n

“At a departmental level, 147,254 hectares have been affected by forest fires,” Yovenka Rosado, coordinator of Santa Cruz’s Forest Fire Program, announced.<\/p>\n

The most severely affected areas border Brazil.<\/p>\n

Rosado said a Super Puma helicopter was being used to douse the larger fire sites with water, and emergency personnel and equipment were being deployed to key spots.<\/p>\n

Rosado said 831 fires had been reported just in the first days of August, for a total this year of 15,555.<\/p>\n

Each year Bolivia confronts forest-fire outbreaks started by settlers in remote areas or by agribusinesses trying to expand their production.<\/p>\n

Bolivian NGO the Friends of Nature Foundation estimates that forest fires last year destroyed more than 2.3 million hectares of forests and grassland. <\/p>\n

In 2019 huge fires in Bolivia’s Amazon destroyed about 6.4 million hectares, the group said.<\/p>\n\n

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Bolivia has lost 1.7 million hectares to fire: government\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Forest fires in Bolivia consume vast area: official (2021, August 8)
\n retrieved 8 August 2021
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2021-08-forest-bolivia-consume-vast-area.html<\/p>\n

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\n part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n