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2021-06-02 12:50
On May 30, local time, wildfires lit in the Pantanal wetland near the border between Bolivia and Paraguay, putting thousands of hectares at risk.
The Pantanal Wetlands are the largest wetlands in the world, located between the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul in South America, partly in Bolivia and Paraguay, with a total area of 242,000 square kilometers. At present, the fire has burned at least 2200 hectares (about 22 square kilometers) of land and is still spreading.
Sandoval, the environment minister in santa Cruz province where the wetlands are located, said that the much vegetation in the Pantanal region is easy to burn, so the task of fighting fires is more complicated. "The vegetation here is like a mattress, there will be embers at the bottom, and the fire can be rekindled at any time, so we must continue to extinguish the fire until it is completely extinguished." The extinguishing operation is still ongoing, and Rosado, the provincial fire prevention coordinator of Santa Cruz Province, said all those who could help had been sent to the scene.
The province of Santa Cruz is mostly plain lowland. In 2019, a large-scale fire burned down the local Chiquitano Forest. The forest, home to Bolivia's indigenous groups for centuries, has sparked protests from indigenous groups demanding action from the government.
(Editor: Liu Qingyang)