Santiago Limachi, David Mercado report for Reuters: CHIQUITANO FOREST, Bolivia (Reuters) – In Bolivia’s fire-ravaged lowlands, a caravan of indigenous protesters is marching hundreds of miles to demand President Evo Morales declare a surge in wildfires a national disaster, a move they hope will unleash international aid. People march during the 10th Indigenous March to defend…
Tag: deforestation
Bolivian leader Evo Morales: Hero or villain?
The BL News: Bolivian leader Evo Morales: Hero or villain? President Evo Morales portrays himself as an environmental defender at the United Nations (UN) while Bolivia burns. The socialist leader does not hesitate to take the pressure off himself and blames the capitalist system for the fires that have devastated more than 4 million hectares…
More than 2 million animals perish in Bolivia wildfires
AFP – JI JI reports for The Japan Times: LA PAZ – More than 2 million wild animals, including jaguars, pumas and llamas, have perished in weeks of wildfires that devastated huge swaths of Bolivian forest and grassland, environmental experts said Wednesday. The fires devastated the Chiquitania tropical savanna in the east of the country. “We…
Bolivia’s forest fires expose risks for environmental reporters
John Otis/CPJ Andes Correspondent reports for Committee to Protect Journalists: When Pablo Ortiz, a veteran reporter for El Deber, the main daily in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, set off to cover massive forest fires, he didn’t realize how dangerous the assignment would be. At one point Ortiz was alongside volunteer firefighters as shifting winds…
Economic and geopolitical interests behind the fire in Chiquitania
El Diario reports: Congresswoman Jimena Costa The MAS Senator candidate Rogelio Mayta warns “political opportunism” in opponents of the disaster in eastern Bolivia So far in the last months, at least 3.3 million hectares burned in the Chiquitania were counted, an accident that, in the opinion of the deputy of the Democratic Unit (UD), Jimena…
Firefighters in Bolivia lose hope of taming blazes as burned area doubles
Channel News Asia reports: CONCEPCION, Bolivia: Bolivian volunteer firefighters, exhausted from battling blazes sweeping rapidly across the country’s lowlands, are starting to lose hope and retreat from the front lines of some infernos in the drought-stricken region. The fires this year are Bolivia’s worst in at least two decades, with the size of burned land…
