Fires have destroyed nearly 36 million acres of forest, private crops and pastures since the beginning of the year, less than in previous years, Bolivia’s environment ministry said on Thursday.
“To date, 35,942,550 acres have been burned in 2021,” said Deputy Minister of Environment and Biodiversity Magin Herrera, noting that the worst-hit counties were Santa Cruz (east) and Benny (northeast), where most are located. of the Amazon forest that belongs to the Bolivian territory and on the other hand the plains of the country.
The area burned is 35,942 square kilometers, in other words larger than the whole of Belgium.
The burned areas correspond to 11,990,020 hectares of forest, 15,362,850 hectares of pastures and 8,589,680 hectares of private fields, the Undersecretary clarified.
In Bolivia it is a tradition to burn forests to turn them into agricultural holdings. The government gives permits for the controlled burning of some areas, but these are very rarely observed.
However, the fires “were much less than in 2020 and 2019”, mainly thanks to the development of larger forces of the army to guard endangered areas, the deputy minister stressed.
According to official data, in 2019 53,055,020 acres were burned and in 2020 another 50,218,200.
.
