September 4, 2022, 2:10 PM
September 4, 2022, 2:10 PM
Through the report of the Early Warning System for Forest Fires (Satif), the Fire Department of the Directorate of Natural Resources (Direna), reported that the department of Santa Cruz registered today 12 forest fires and presents a 54% of the territory with extreme risk of fire occurrence. The total damage to date exceeds 70 thousand hectares burnedin the municipalities of San José, San Ignacio de Velasco and San Miguel.
Jaime Zorrilla, a firefighter instructor from the Directorate of Natural Resources (Direna), indicated that until this Sunday morning the active fires are in 10 municipalities: Concepción, San Ignacio, El Torno, Puerto Suárez, San Antonio del Lomerío, Roboré, Santa Rosa del Sara, Urubichá and in the GAIG Kereimba Iyaambae – Gutiérrez.
The department of Santa Cruz recorded on this day 149 new burning sourcesadding 673 so far this month and giving a cumulative figure for the year of 18,413, concentrating these in the municipalities of San José, San Matías, Pailón, el Puente, Concepción, San Julián, Santa Rosa, San Ignacio and San Miguel.
East September 4 marks the National Day of Protected Areas (AP) and also the anniversary of the National Service of Protected Areas (Sernap). Unfortunately, on this date there are already two PAs with burned surfaces and in the midst of fighting the fire, they are the Otuquis National Park and the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (Pnnkm), while the flames also stalk the Integral Management Natural Area (ANMI). ) Saint Matthias.
In his social networks, President Luis Arce celebrated the National Day of Protected Areas, and reaffirmed the commitment to continue building an economy for life and living well based on economic models that seek social and ecological justice. “Protecting Mother Earth is everyone’s obligation“, he posted, without mentioning the fires, deforestation and the mining invasion.
However, to date, from the presidency there has been no response to the request for help that the park rangers of the Pnnkm sent through a letter in the first days of August.
“We write to you at exhaust all the corresponding instances with the Sernap and the Ministry of Environment and Water (MMyY) (…). We have withdrawn since July 26 to claim the lack of resources and different labor and logistics situations that prevent us from carrying out our conservation work efficiently,” the letter says.
They also reminded him that other APs were pronounced, such as Kaa Iya del Gran Chaco, Madidi, Pilón Lajas, Beni Biological Station, Otuquis and Sajama, where the park rangers also declared an emergency due to lack of salaries and resources. All this in advance of the fires.
They made Arce Catacora known the salary of the protection bodies has been frozen since 2015and that from this they often have to pay for gasoline for patrols in the Pnnkm, “fuel that never arrives in a timely manner and when it arrives they don’t return the money we spent either”.
They also reported that There are no publicly available data to know in detail the management of the budget for protected areas. “However, we are aware that only 23% of the Sernap budget is covered by the State and the rest is supported by international cooperation. It is necessary and urgent that the State ensure a better budget for the care of our heritage, which constitutes the 16% of the national area“.
In the social networks of Sernap they also celebrated the date, avoiding the recurring problem of fires. They shared messages from the executive director of Sernap, Teodoro Mamani, who congratulated the staff, from whom he has received letters of complaint. Likewise, messages of congratulations from different NGOs, which also did not refer to environmental damage within PAs.
For months, national legislators such as María René Álvarez, María José Salazar, Cecilia Requena and others have been denouncing a series of illegal mining authorizations and incursions within PAs.
One of the most recent was ANMI San Matías, where rights were granted to MINCRUZ and its Sagittarius project, for the extraction of manganese, with the previous deforestation of 20 ha in a protection zone.
Under public pressure, the decision was reversed, but so far there are no people responsible for the authorizations issued, only silenceas in most cases.
El Madidi is also another AP with strong pressure from mining, where legislators have not been able to enter due to aggressions and where an appeal for people’s actionfinally directed by the Fourth Constitutional Chamber of La Paz, which determined that the authorities must generate the regulation of the use and control of mercury in gold mining activity.
The AP Manuripi Management Committee also denounced the illegal entry of the Pacahuara mining company. “They want to violate the reserve, working on the mainland, but that still means deforestation, contamination and a series of things. People come with money and power and in the name of development they want to destroy our ecosystem“, said Alfonzo Almaraz, member of the Management Committee of the reserve.
He questioned the false discourse of the authorities, who claim to protect the Amazon, “So how is it that they let Lake Poopó dry up?. They want to introduce an activity that only destroys, go see Peru with the exploitation of gold. This is the planet’s water reservoir“, he indicated.
Law No. 1333 on the Environment establishes that protected areas are the property of the State and of public and social interest, must be administered according to their categories, zoning and regulations based on management plans for the protection and conservation of its natural resourcesscientific research as well as recreation, education and promotion of ecological tourism.
However, lately, social organizations, mining cooperatives, etc., have exerted strong pressure to modify PA management plansand with it the zoning, ‘softening’ the norm with a view to the incursion of mining, where it is not allowed.
Protected areas ‘get in the way’ for some
A clear example is the recent letter sent by various organizations from Ixiamas, including a departmental assemblyman from La Paz, deputy mayor of Ixiamas, peasants, etc., who, taking advantage of the meeting to formulate the Ixiamas POA 2023, included in the minutes the rejection to the presence of the organization Conservation International (CI) in the Bajo Madidi municipal protected area and annulment of Law 0151/2019, which creates the largest protected area in Bolivia, with 1.5 million hectares of Amazon forest.
Communities from the area, with another statement, denounced the manipulation of the minutes, which were not read at that point in the room, but were written. “We will not allow this violation of our rights (…). We reject the attack on our natural resources (…). Productive activities must be carried out in areas suitable for that (…,). We remain in emergency and permanent vigil”, says the note of clarification.
The deputy of Cree, María René Álvarez, through several letters sent to the UN, IACHR and OAS, alerted the international community about the violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and park rangers, affecting the PAs of Bolivia, by the Government from Arce Catacora.
