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ENVIRONMENT-BOLIVIA: Slash and Burn – a Smoking Gun

Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Oct 18 2007 (IPS) - Every year, when the (southern hemisphere) spring arrives in Bolivia, the skies are covered with smoke, while anti-pollution campaigns to dissuade farmers from using their traditional slash-and-burn farming technique fall on deaf ears.

This year, the sky turned dark with smoke just one week after President Evo Morales criticised industrialised countries at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 26 for the environmental damage their economic models and lifestyles have caused.

Despite efforts to eradicate it, the custom of slashing and burning to clear land for crops in Bolivia’s valleys and extensive plains is spreading year by year.

Morales has taken up the banner of defence of the environment in international politics, and his leftwing views are opposed to industrial excesses in rich countries, which he blames for global warming.

The president, formerly a coca farmer, bases his ideas in this field on the preservation of the natural environment in conjunction with traditional indigenous cultures, and on taking care of water resources and forests, so that humanity and nature live in harmony.

Several factors are contributing to the spread of uncontrolled burning, which often closes down airports, threatens the safety of families and farms, exacerbates ailments such as conjunctivitis and respiratory problems, and destroys the local fauna and flora.

“The laws are not obeyed because people are not familiar with them, and they do not know why burning is forbidden,” the national coordinator of the Environmental Defence League (LIDEMA), biologist Marco Ribera, told IPS.

In the last week of September and the first few days of October, satellites detected 447 different fires in Bolivia, seven times the number seen last year.

Rains are scanty at this time of year, but they did contribute to putting out the fires which threatened populated areas and natural gas deposits. Emergency services, on the other hand, were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the fires which raged in seven of the country’s nine departments (provinces).

Hubert Gallardo, an expert on fires who has worked with the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (SENAMHI) for 12 years, says that the smoke and its consequences recur every year, and the only things that change are the statistics.

“We’re on the threshold of a disaster whenever the weather brings us low humidity, high temperatures and low rainfall,” the meteorologist told IPS.

Ribera recommends that the government develop policy guidelines as a matter of urgency and, instead of creating laws, work with indigenous peoples to draw up “community standards.”

He is proposing a balanced way of using fire to clear areas destined for subsistence crops for family farmers, which would prevent the flames spreading to forests.

A combination of techniques would allow agricultural fields to be opened up in agroforestry systems while preserving the trees which yield valuable products. A period without burning must be applied in each field, to prevent the destruction being repeated every year, he said.

“The main challenge is to mark the borders and limits within which fire can be used,” said Ribera.

The forestry authorities (Superintendencia Forestal) reported that only 13 percent of the burns were carried out with permits. But Ribera points out that farmers see little benefit in applying for a permit, besides the fact that they often live several days’ journey away from the nearest forestry office.

Gallardo also offers other explanations for forest fires. He says that growth in farming activity, migration of families due to shifting cultivation, and the failure to prepare for these contingencies are encouraging uncontrolled “chaqueo”, or burning of low-growth vegetation.

Air pollution in the city of Santa Cruz reached 145 micrograms of smoke per cubic metre in early October, and was accompanied by acute drought and temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, the highest ever recorded at this time of year, in early spring.

The previous record, 38 degrees, was set in 1970 and repeated in 1997, Gallardo said.

At this time of year, Gallardo regularly informs the media about the number of fires, reports the spread of smoke to densely populated areas, and warns of the risk to flying aircraft. Regrettably, he says he feels every year that the awareness-raising campaigns are not yielding results.

Comfort-seeking urban dwellers and the destruction of natural resources in tropical regions are increasing human vulnerability, he said.

To illustrate, he pointed out that in 1548 the area now covered by La Paz was a valley with a crystal-clear river. But today it is a crowded mass of buildings where water accumulates suddenly in the rainy season, unleashing violent torrents that endanger people’s lives.

“We must learn to care for the environment and stop destroying nature,” says Gallardo.

But Ribera says the need to produce food for growing market demand and the pressure to clear ever greater swaths of land as pasture for cattle are winning in the unequal battle for nature conservation.

Gallardo recommends that local and provincial governments start taking environmental issues seriously, and adopt five- or six-year programmes to prevent drought, floods, frost, the burning of vegetation and other factors that pose a risk to human life.