###

The guests at the monthly colloquium of the magazine did not hesitate to recommend drastic measures, such as involving the Armed Forces to cordon off areas affected by the fires, in a situation that also involves various factors and even controversial actors...

ISSUE 135 | 2024

Vesna Marinkovic U.

Magdalena Medrano, an environmental engineer and president of the League for the Defense of the Environment (LIDEMA), warned about the severe situation facing the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, La Paz, and Cochabamba in Bolivia, which are 90% affected by fires that have overwhelmed any capacity for control. "We are no longer talking about disasters but about a catastrophe," she said during the monthly colloquium of ENERGÍABolivia magazine.

According to Medrano, although the fires should be regulated by the law that allows controlled land burning, the current magnitude has exceeded all limits. "These fires are not the result of a cultural practice, but are being driven by political and economic interests, particularly by those seeking to expand the agricultural frontier."

In her view, the fires have devastated forest areas that will not be usable for agricultural production due to the soil’s characteristics. "Bolivia, once positioned as one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, is losing that natural wealth," Medrano lamented, highlighting the destruction of unique flora and fauna.

IRREPARABLE DAMAGE

Regarding Supreme Decree 5225, enacted by the government of Luis Arce Catacora, which establishes an ecological pause with a ban on burning, she called it a late and insufficient measure. According to Magdalena Medrano, this decree, issued in September of this year, comes at a time when the fires have already caused irreparable damage. "It’s just lip service," Medrano stated, noting that the lack of regulation and the pressure from sectors such as the interculturals, mainly, have limited its enforcement.

The decree comes in a context where Bolivia has lost more than 10 million hectares of forest, an area larger than the department of Cochabamba. "The tragedy is immense. The damage is already done; we have lost areas with unique biodiversity that hadn’t even been cataloged. What we are facing is not just a disaster; it’s a catastrophe," Medrano emphasized.

For Medrano, the National Armed Forces should have already been securing these areas, classified as being of immense natural wealth, along with protecting citizens and volunteer firefighters, who are mitigating this tragedy, as well as thousands of wild animals. In this context, she denounced that four people have already died, including a teacher who was shot, an incident that hasn’t received much attention, and she called for the immediate involvement of the military.

INADEQUATE REGULATIONS AND LACK OF PREVENTION

For his part, engineer Martín Villaroel, an international consultant in Disaster Risk Management, university professor, and expert with a long career in environmental issues, agreed that the decree is an insufficient measure and highlighted the government's lack of preventive action. He mentioned that, according to the Risk Management Law passed in 2014, authorities should act in the phases of prevention, mitigation, and recovery, regretting that this has not been fulfilled. "We know when the fires come, when the winds and rains start. However, no action has been taken in advance," he criticized.

Villaroel also suggested that Bolivia should incorporate the category of "catastrophe" into its legislation to describe extreme situations like the current one. "In other countries, like Brazil, these types of events are already recognized, while here we are still using insufficient terms," he stated.

HELLISH SITUATION

Faced with this account that depicts a situation described as “hellish,” Villaroel stated that every crisis, every disaster, has three characteristics: a solution, an expiration date, and most importantly, the lessons learned. In this case, he emphasized that the solution requires drastic measures, agreeing with Medrano. “The Joint Command of the Armed Forces should intervene immediately. There are military resources available, and these contingents have specialized firefighting equipment. However, the necessary speed of response has been lacking, and we’ve had to rely on firefighters from other countries. Unfortunately, many of them are already returning due to a lack of coordination within the incident command system,” he pointed out.

“According to the Risk Management Law, we have the National Risk Management System (SINAGER), which should be leading these actions. But upon reviewing the information from SINAGER, it is only updated to September 27. It is essential to immediately implement the EDAN form (Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis), a crucial tool for making timely decisions,” he added, also highlighting a significant lack of information.

These fires are not the result of a cultural practice but are being driven by political and economic interests...”

As for the lessons learned, he said it is essential for the government to repeal the laws that allow for the expansion of land for livestock farming and other destructive activities. “Rural communities are not demanding more land; rather, this is driven by the interests of elites and intercultural groups seeking to expand their economic control over territories,” he emphasized.

“Finally, I want to highlight the importance of existing environmental laws, such as Law 602 and the Law of Mother Earth. It is crucial that the government enforces these regulations to ensure truly sustainable development, not only for our generation but for future ones. We are in a severe environmental crisis, and it is essential to more rigorously regulate emergency declarations and the enforcement of these norms,” Villaroel stressed.

AFTER DESTRUCTION, ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

Both participants acknowledged that all the reflection surrounding these catastrophic fires in Bolivia is “late.” However, they still recommended drastic measures, such as the intervention of the Armed Forces to cordon off the affected areas, which are also intertwined with the involvement of various factors and even controversial actors like intercultural groups seeking new farmland, some agricultural entrepreneurs, miners, and even drug traffickers. They noted an intensification of the country’s economic problems, predicting an environmental crisis of great proportions.

Additionally, they emphasized that it is a complex scenario to monitor, even at the level of the resources allocated by the state to entities like the vice-ministry of Defense, which is responsible for managing this situation that has surpassed the condition of disaster to become a national catastrophe, further worsening the country’s economic situation due to an environmental crisis with extreme consequences such as droughts and extreme temperatures, particularly in eastern Bolivia.

“…they emphasized that it is a complex scenario to monitor, even at the level of the resources allocated by the state to entities like the vice-ministry of Defense…”