After a month, help arrives to put out the fires in Madidi

After almost a month of fires in the National Park and Management Area Integrated Madidi, the Government displaced air and ground equipment to quell the flames that are advancing in an area that is difficult to access.

The Vice Minister of Civil Defense, Juan Carlos Calvimontes, reported that this Thursday 100 firefighters and an aircraft entered to carry out fire extinguishing tasks.

According to preliminary reports, the flames have already consumed 20,000 hectares of vegetation in this national park and endangers unique species.

The indigenous representative Ruth Alipaz reported, through her social networks, that on October 10 the existence was already reported of a fire in the core of the protected area and that the fire started in recently settled communities even though there should be no nearby human activity or opening of roads in that area.

Since then, indigenous people, institutions and environmentalists have been requesting support so that the flames do not continue damaging the park that was also severely affected last year due to forest fires.

Calls for help led environmentalists this week to install protests in La Paz to demand the prompt attention to fires.

The environmental collective Fight for the Amazon set up a hunger strike picket in front of to the Ministry of Defense, while Guardians of the Earth and The Voice of the Voiceless took a gamble at the doors of the National Service of Protected Areas (Sernap).

The Vice Minister of Civil Defense stated that the previous week he received a request from Sernap because they detected fire in the satellite system, So they immediately looked for a way to enter this difficult-to-access sector.

First they tried to get there through Cochabamba or Trinidad, but it was not possible, until they finally managed to do it on the Cobija side, in a small plane.

Calvimontes indicated that it was impossible to enter by land or water, which is why helicopters were planned and teams of forest firefighters from Rurrenabaque and San Buena Ventura. “We are already working,” he remarked.

He indicated that there is no official data on the origin of the fire; However, they do not rule out that there are economic interests involved. the earth and try to open new spaces for cultivation in agriculture and livestock. Also as a use of wood.

Nor do they rule out the possibility that there is an attempt to carry out a mining activity or that in the background there are political interests to destabilize to the Government, according to Calvimontes. Furthermore, subjugation or land traffic is not ruled out.

Madidi Park is considered one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the world. It is home to 50% of Bolivia’s plant and animal species. For exampleis home to 50% of the palm trees and 71 % of the country’s birds. Eight of the nine felines that live in Bolivia have their home in Madidi. The same applies to 62% of bats.