On August 1, 2021, firefighters attempted to extinguish a grassfire near Santa Cruz's Viru Viru Airport. The area has been severely affected by forest fires.According to the regional government, forest fires have destroyed more than 147,000 hectares (or 360,000 acres) of Bolivia's eastern Santa Cruz region this year.Similar to Brazil's neighbor, the fires were exacerbated by extensive deforestation that aimed at increasing farming and pasture land.They also come at a time when climate change is becoming a more urgent concern with the destruction of forests in the Western US, Greece, and Turkey.Yovenka Rosado (coordinator of Santa Cruz's Forest Fire Program) announced that 147,254 ha were affected at the departmental level by forest fires.Brazil is the border of the most affected regions.Rosado stated that a Super Puma helicopter was being used for watering larger fires, and that emergency personnel and equipment were being deployed at key locations.Rosado stated that 831 fires were reported in the first seven days of August for a total of 15,555 this year.Bolivia is constantly confronted with forest-fire outbreaks caused by settlers or agribusinesses looking to expand their production.The Friends of Nature Foundation, a Bolivian NGO estimates that last year's forest fires destroyed more than 2.3 Million hectares of grassland and forests.According to the group, 6.4 million hectares were destroyed by fires in Bolivia's Amazon in 2019, according to estimates.2021 AFP
