500,000 Acres Burn In Paraguay; Burn Zone In Bolivia Size Of Switzerland; Much Of Continent Shrouded In Smoke

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At least 20 people have died since July in Peru as forest fires have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of land in the Andes and its portion of the Amazon. In the last fortnight, states of emergency have been declared in six regions; Lambayeque, Huánuco and Cajamarca in the highlands and San Martin, Ucayali and Amazonas, in the Amazon. Fires have affected 22 out of Peru’s 24 regions.

Peru’s prime minister, Gustavo Adrianzén, caused anger by attributing the fires to traditional slash-and-burn practices, though experts say most were likely deliberately set to open up land for farming, ranching and illicit crops like coca, the plant used to make cocaine. “Most of the fires were started to open the doors to illegal activity,” said Constantino Aucca, who leads Acción Andina, a community-led reforestation model in Andean countries.

Christian Rivera, an Ecuadorian paramedic, has been among those helping battle the flames in and around his country’s capital, Quito, in recent weeks. “What’s extraordinary is the scale of the emergency … I’ve never seen anything like it in 30 years working as a paramedic,” Rivera said by phone last week from Cerro de Auqui, the latest point to be hit by blazes that have shrouded the highland capital in smoke and ash.

“We can see this is related to global heating,” Rivera added. “As soon as we put out the flames in one place, they start somewhere else.”

Fires have also swept across Bolivia’s eastern lowlands, particularly affecting Santa Cruz, the country’s agricultural powerhouse, where most of its soya and beef is produced. On Monday, the president Luis Arce flew into the region to officially declare a situation of national disaster.

According to the latest figures from the national government, 4.6m hectares of forest have burned across the country – an area greater than the size of Switzerland. The regional government in Santa Cruz says 7m hectares of pasture and forest have burned there alone, “the worst environmental disaster” in its history.

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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/02/south-america-wildfire-smoke-deforestation-drought