Forest fires have devastated nearly 150,000 hectares this year in Bolivia's Santa Cruz department alone, near the border with Brazil, local authorities said on Saturday.
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A total of 147,254 hectares went up in smoke, said in a press release Yovenka Rosado, who coordinates the forest fire program in this region.
"
In places where the flames rose to more than five meters, with columns of smoke more than 30 meters high, we will release water with a (military helicopter) Superpuma
", she said. added.
In the area particularly affected by the fires of San Matías, a natural park risks being engulfed in flames.
In the first days of August, "
831 outbreaks were recorded, 15,555 over the year,
" continued the official.
The deforestation which progresses in Bolivia, a country of more than one million km2 and about 12 million inhabitants, largely explains these phenomena.
The Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN), an NGO, estimates that more than 2.3 million hectares of woods and pastures were destroyed by fire in 2010. In 2019, huge fires had ravaged 6, 4 million hectares in the Amazonian part of this country, according to the same NGO.