A fire devours the Bolivia Nature Reserve and declares "the state of disaster" | Chronic

More than 460,000 hectares of forests and pastures in the tourist zone of Chiquitania and in a nature reserve in the Bolivian region of Santa Cruz, in the east of the country, have been burned down. The government declared the state of "departmental disaster".

The governor of this region, Rubén Costas, said Sunday that this statement is justified in "the dramatic situation we live in the department and the great vulnerability that exists" because of the fires

The declaration of disaster will facilitate a coordinated action with the national government, which sent the Minister of Defense to Santa Cruz, Javier Zavaletaand the Deputy Minister of Civil Defense, Oscar Cabrera, to this end.

The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, said on Twitter that the national authorities are making a "permanent surveillance of fires in Santa Cruz"."We ask the people to collaborate and to respect all the preventive measures"added Morales.

Some 468,904 hectares were razed by forest fires that began about 10 days ago, according to information provided by Cruz's government.

Municipalities declared in "disaster" The fires are those of Roboré and San Ignacio de Velasco, although fire control works are also carried out in other cities such as San Rafael, Charagua, Concepción, San Matías and San José de Chiquitos.

The largest fire was recorded in Roboré, where government forest fire instructors, volunteer firefighters, municipal technicians, military and civil defense personnel work to protect communities that could be affected, according to the government. Regional Office of Santa Cruz.

San Ignacio de Velasco, San Jose and Concepción are part of Chiquitania, one of the main tourist areas of Bolivia where Jesuit missions, declared as Unesco heritage, are established and considered as the best preserved of all. America.

The fire that broke out in the Tucavaca Forest Reserve, near Roboré, also protects part of the "Chiquitano Dry Forest", in addition to the water sources that form the basis of the regional system. 39, water supply, according to the data of the governor's office.

Costas pointed to the work of volunteer firefighters, who "have made extreme efforts to fight" the Santa Cruz fire, including the regional capital, where about twenty fires have occurred in recent hours.

The governor said Saturday was a fire at the Viru Viru International Airport, the largest in Bolivia, which could have been controlled after a few hours.

According to the regional authority, "Almost one hundred percent of these fires are caused by men" burning garbage in cities or the "Chaqueta", an agricultural practice of burning vegetation to prepare arable land and pastures.

Added to this are the wind gusts of 80 or 90 kilometers per hour recorded in Santa Cruz, which "there is no human power that can stop it"he said.

"The situation is very worrying, I would say very serious", the governor alerted and called for the cessation of these practices.

"You can not play with fire, you can not risk natural resources, human lives, all this is such an important heritage that we have tried and we will continue to try to defend," Costas said.