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BOLIVIA: Slash-and-Burn Agriculture Gone Haywire
By Franz Chávez*
LA PAZ, Sep 29 (Tierramérica) - Because of a rash of fires lit intentionally to
expand farmland and grazing areas, the residents of the central Bolivian
city of Santa Cruz are breathing air that has more than twice the level of
suspended particles than the maximum allowed by health authorities.
A team from the ''Clean Air'' project of Swiss Contact, an international aid
group, found that in mid-September in Santa Cruz levels were as high as 400
micrograms of suspended particulate matter per cubic metre of air, when the
standard limit is 150 micrograms.
The suspended particles are liquids or solids, invisible to the naked eye,
and able to travel great distances in the air, persisting over time and
causing respiratory ailments.
Satellite images revealed 2,383 separate forest fires in Bolivia's
semi-tropical regions and plains over an area of 167,343 hectares, which
prompted LIDEMA, a local environmental defence league, to issue a forceful
call for a complete ban on the slash-and-burn practice known locally as
''chaqueos'', used to extend the agricultural frontier.
Members of the Bolivian armed forces and Civil Defence have been mobilised
by land and air, along with volunteers, in an effort to halt the advance of
the flames and to rescue families surrounded by fires burning out of
control.
At least two people - a young boy and an elderly man - have died as a
result of the fires, which are burning in the departments of Santa Cruz,
Beni, Cochabamba, La Paz and Tarija.
Dense clouds of smoke have made commercial flights difficult and have caused
delays at the region's airports.
The inhabitants of the eastern area have been hardest hit, in health terms,
from breathing in the suspended particles, which accumulate in the lungs,
causing respiratory ailments, says Orlando Vásquez, an adviser with the
Clean Air project.
On the days with most smoke in the air, the incidence of headaches has
increased sharply among the population, exposed to massive amounts of carbon
oxides, as did the incidence of eye irritation and pinkeye, he told
Tierramérica.
LIDEMA, a coalition of non-governmental groups, warned about the long-term
effects of the burnings, which contribute directly to climate change,
drought and erosion.
The coordinator of LIDEMA's training program, Edwin Alvarado Terrazas, cited
the threat of loss of biodiversity in a country that is among the top 10 in
terms of biological wealth of flora and fauna.
Along with the vegetation, microorganisms that help fertilise the soil are
burned, he said in conversation with Tierramérica.
Unlike in the western Andean region of the country, where slash-and-burn
agriculture is a traditional practice and the small fires are kept tightly
under control, in the east the expansion of cattle ranches and soybean
fields has fuelled indiscriminate burning of vast swaths of forest,
affecting dozens of families, said the activist.
In general, a typical peasant farmer in Bolivia's Andean region burns a
half-hectare area, but the cattle ranchers and soybean growers in the east
are clearing the land by the hundreds of hectares, he said.
Bolivian law allows controlled burns, but Alvarado said the government does
not effectively monitor the practice, and said it would be preferable to
cancel all of the permits for ''chaqueos''.
LIDEMA suggests creating a national fire prevention system, one with
sufficient financial resources and made up of civil society groups and
specialised institutions. This system would have the authority to implement
preventative and monitoring measures.
Bolivia's environmental law calls for a four-year prison sentence for
persons found guilty of starting fires on property they do not own, or
burning cropland or pastures, intentionally or accidentally.
The league is calling for the rigorous application of that and other laws,
with trials and penalties to make examples of those who engage in burning
that poses a threat to the environment or human health.
(* Franz Chávez is a Tierramérica contributor. Originally published Sep. 25
by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing
of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations
Environment Programme.)
(END/2004)
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