(CNN) – It’s not just the Brazilian Amazon burning — fires in Bolivia have ravaged more than 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of land, according to Bolivian officials. That’s more than double the damage from just two weeks ago. Fires are leaving blackened trees and ash-covered forest floors in their wake. The website of Bolivia’s Santa Cruz region described finding charred animals in its devastated lands, and others desperately searching for food and water. The majority of fires are in protected natural areas and in forests, according to environmental secretary Cinthia Asin on Wednesday,
calling for the federal government to declare a national disaster. “We insist on a national declaration of disaster because we are losing a great part of our biodiversity that is also a water provider,” she said. Thousands of firefighters, park rangers, state employees, and volunteers are on the front lines fighting the fires, but new fires keep starting and spreading, she said. The fires have claimed two lives so far, according to Bolivian President Evo Morales. He tweeted earlier this week the names of Jorge Hinojoza Vega and police officer Lucio Mamani, whom he said had died while putting out fires in the city of Sacaba and the town of Coroico, respectively. READ MORE
