By: Camila Rua / Translated by: Adriana Serrano
During the beginning of the present year the fire has covered different parts in America. The most notorious, Los Angeles. Although at least five other countries in the southern part of the continent are going through a similar situation, such disasters have received less media coverage.
Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Panama and Paraguay are the countries that in the first month of the year have suffered large forest fires at different scales, from 3300 hectares affected in the regions of Biobío and La Araucanía, Chile, to 60 thousand hectares in Paraguay.
The main reason for the overwhelming scale of the fires is the lack of readiness from the different state institutions. Three main topics contribute to this problem:
- Increase in Temperatures: The well-known increase in temperatures in the southern cone of the continent between the months of December and March. This phenomenon is affected by the global temperature increase, since, as reported by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the last 10 years have been the warmest ever registered.
- Lack of Investment: In some countries the investment in the environment has decreased and other countries continue to have rudimentary methods, as is the case of Colombia, which does not have a robust fire control fleet, therefore in the event of large-scale fires people must turn to the military air forces for help.
- Lack of Support and Public Policies: The lack of support from state institutions in the management of forest lands and the lack of public policies or sanctions for starting fires. In these cases, mistakes such as throwing cigarette butts, lighting bonfires of the improper management of controlled burns can destroy the biodiversity of parks and natural reserves.
Therefore, prevention mechanisms are necessary and have special importance in sectors and countries that have already suffered large-scale forest fires. An example of this is Bolivia, which in September 2024 declared a “natural disaster.” Moreover, the prevention measures are very necessary in this country for the next fire season, since they are going through a lack of resources due to the country’s economic situation because of the fiscal deficit and the increase in inflation.
The multiplicity of fires throughout Latin America are destroying the Patagonian forests, the Colombian moors, the Amazon jungles and other key ecosystems for the biodiversity of our planet. It is necessary to invest resources and carry out policies and actions for the conservation of these spaces.
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