Bolivia and Paraguay, also criticized for deforestation and fires

Jair Bolsonaro

, president of

Brasil

is
severely attacked by the international community for forest fires in his country. But Brazil is not the only country where care for the Amazon rainforest and other forest areas is being questioned.

Management that

Bolivia

and

Paraguay

They make their natural resources cause much criticism, although this has gone unnoticed in the international press.

The Bolivian president,

Evo Morales

He had controversial statements during a visit he made this week in Santa Cruz, eastern Bolivia, where a fire hit hundreds of thousands of people. hectares of the Chiquitanía, a wooded area of ​​transition between the Amazon and the Chaco.

After flying over the area, Morales recognized the seriousness of the damage,
but he also defended "everyo", the practice of farmers to burn forest areas to expand their farmland.

"The control of each and every one is important, but I also want you to know: if small families, small producers, they're not doing it, what are they going to live for?" corn, half a hectare, that's the situation of the small producer, maximum one hectare of rice for survival, "said Morales.

"Now we are in other times, we have to adapt the standards, we are mechanized and we must always adapt the standards to the forms of experiments," he added.

His government has just hired the world's largest firefighter, the Boeing 747 Supertanker, with a capacity of 75,000 liters, a rental price of US $ 800,000, and US $ 16,000 for each flight. that he performs, according to the Bolivian authorities.

But this payout did not appease critics for supporting the blockade.

At the beginning of July, Morales amended the decree regulating permanent forest production lands to authorize the clearing and controlled burning of forests in the Beni and Santa Cruz departments for agricultural purposes on private and community lands.

It is precisely in Santa Cruz that lies the plain of Chiquitanía, where the llamas have already touched more than 500 000 hectares.

As a result, some environmental advocates and advocates of indigenous peoples now blame Morales for changing regulations to extend agricultural land.

The national coordinator of the defense of territories and protected areas indigenous peasants (Contiocap), very critical of the management of Morales, emphasizes that the policies "extractivists" promoted by the government are responsible for what happens .

Cecilia Requena, ecologist
He told the Mongabay Ecological Information Portal "that there are people directly responsible for this environmental disaster and that the first is the government that has consistently adopted in recent years laws on" forgiveness " , promotion and promotion of the agricultural frontier ".

He also regretted having approved "genetically modified organisms, agrofuels, the extension of the agricultural border, the export of meat in China and finally this decree of July 9 authorizing deforestation to agricultural purposes of forest areas ".

Reviews in Paraguay

Paraguay is also no stranger to the controversy over forest fires.

According to local press, the fire has already destroyed more than 350,000 hectares in an area close to the border with Bolivia.

Paraguay is in fact one of the countries with the highest rate of deforestation.

Between 1987 and 2012, deforestation doubled compared to the previous decade, cleaning 44,000 square kilometers in the west of the country to make way for livestock.
for example, a joint study of the Humboldt University of Berlin and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA).

Although most of the lost forest is not found in the Amazon rainforest, but in the forests of Gran Chaco.

Paraguay, in particular, is also heavily criticized for not protecting the forest against another danger: agrochemicals.

In mid-August, the United Nations Human Rights Committee found that country responsible for human rights violations for not exercising "adequate control over pollution activities" illegal ".

This happened after one person died and 22 others were poisoned in 2011 by the use of agrochemicals in transgenic soybean-producing companies that had reduced the surrounding jungle to establish their own. plantations.

Paraguay is home to vast areas of wetlands and forests and has become the world's fourth largest exporter of soybeans and eighth beef. Both sectors contribute more than 30% of GDP.

BBC

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