Huge fires in Brazil and Bolivia regularly plunge residents into a night of smoke

Between the El Nino phenomenon and global warming, a severe drought is still affecting several regions of Bolivia and Brazil. Huge fires are ravaging the Amazon.

It took weeks of fires and devastated agricultural and forest areas. The Bolivian government finally declared a “national emergency” on Sunday, September 8, under pressure from all sides to take action against the fires ravaging the east of the country. This decision will notably facilitate the arrival of international aid in the country, where French firefighters are expected to participate.

Bolivia is in the grip of flames in its tropical part, in the East, as a result of a major drought episode over the past year, under the combined effect of the El Nino phenomenon and global warming which is amplifying its scale, something that scientists have documented.

Gigantic fires already raged at the end of last year, as in 2019 and 2021. For a few weeks now, we have seen the same images of smoky landscapes and cities where it seems to be dark in the middle of the day, and these fires of course have serious consequences, with activities at a standstill (airports or schools closed) and agricultural areas devastated. In total, nearly four million hectares have burned in Bolivia, and the repetition of these large-scale events is partly linked to the increasing deforestation in the country.

By focusing in particular on soya and meat exports for its development, the government is not slowing down the clearing of forests, quite the contrary, and deforestation is delaying the rainy season, making it easier for fires to break out.

The situation is comparable in Brazil, where fires have broken out in the tens of thousands since the beginning of 2024. In the vast majority of cases, these fires are of human origin, and sometimes intentional, which gives rise to political clashes based on suspicion. Agricultural trading giants and small producers accuse each other of being the cause of these fires.

Despite a significant drop in deforestation since Lula’s return to power, Brazil experienced a catastrophic August on the fire front. The government declared “at war” against the flames that affected not only the Amazon, but also the region of São Paulo, the richest in the country, a stronghold of the world sugar trade.

This is enough to fuel the concern of scientists, who see the largest tropical forest on the planet losing some of its characteristics, to the point of eventually risking gradually transforming into a wooded savannah.