Burning across the border: Fires rage in Bolivia

According to official numbers, wildfires have burned through more than 1 million hectares of dry forest and farmland in Bolivia. In the area of Santa Rosa de Tucabaca in the country's eastern Chiquitania region, the fires have raged for over a month, threatening indigenous populations and devastating Bolivia's rich biodiversity.

Out-of-control wildfires light up the night sky. The unique Chiquitania region — characterized by both savannah and forest — experienced a severe drought this year. It's common practice for farmers to start small, easily-monitored fires during the months of July and August to prepare the soil for the next harvest. But many have quickly spread this season and morphed into wildfires.

Areas of forest which have already been cut down are more likely to catch alight. Many of the fires in Bolivia were started by small farmers after President Evo Morales passed legislation in July that encourages slash-and-burn farming to open up new land for agricultural use. Morales has been accused of pushing populist policies and failing to act quickly to contain the wildfires.

The fires are still expanding through the Chiquitania region. Indigenous people have been affected, including the Chiquitanos and the Ayoreos peoples, who produce citrus fruits, beans, rice, and corn.

Vania Montenegro Aranibar (39) is a local farmer from the village of Peniel, where she cultivates lemons, passion fruits and avocados. The fire quickly surrounded her property, destroying her fields and killing her ducks. "They died in half an hour because their feathers caught on fire," she told DW. "I'm very sad how many animals must have been burned, how many species, trees."

This anteater was just one of countless animals caught in the fires which passed through the area of Chochis. Firefighters on the ground have described heartbreaking scenes of terrified animals fleeing from the flames, including armadillos, snakes, tapirs and jaguars. Those who survived are now at risk of starvation due to the lack of food and water.

Firefighters Moises Soria Valverde and Ronald Picolomini visit a badly affected area in Santa Rosa de Tucabaca. Alongside other firefighters, they are helping with efforts to try and control the massive wildfires. They cut through the dense forest with machetes and try to extinguish the flames with 20 liter water tanks on their backs. But the battle still feels like an impossible fight.

Outside of the village of Robore, the wildfires have now spread to areas mostly inaccessible to firefighters. The Chiquitano dry forests are part of an ecoregion connecting the tropical Amazon biome with the semiarid Gran Chaco region, which stretches into western Paraguay, northern Argentina and part of Brazil.