Lessons From a Climate Disaster

Bolivia’s record-setting 2024 wildfire season makes clear that emergency responses to climate disasters are not enough and governments must address the root of the problem, a new report says.

Last year, record wildfires fueled by dry conditions incinerated large swaths of Bolivia’s forests, wetlands and other ecosystems, burning an area larger than the state of Indiana. 

The blazes decimated ecosystems, affecting thousands of families, many of whom are Indigenous and reliant on forests and waterways for their livelihoods, food, water, culture and medicine.

A new report by Javier Palummo, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ special rapporteur on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, documents the extensive human rights toll of the fires. The sweeping and highly critical review also identifies how the Bolivian government contributed to the dry conditions that created the circumstances for the fires to rage longer and faster than before.

According to the analysis, tensions between the national and local governments hindered emergency responses while policies aimed at aggressively expanding industrial agriculture have dried out large areas of the country, leaving ecosystems vulnerable to fire. 

Those policies included laws that legalized past illegal land clearings, authorized the use of fire in agricultural activities and opened Indigenous territories to intensive agriculture and livestock operations. 

“The expansion of agribusiness in Bolivia is closely linked to the increase in forest fires and deforestation,” the report said. 

Neither Bolivia’s Ministry of Environment and Water nor the country’s consulate in New York responded to requests for comment. But the national government has long championed poor countries’ right to develop while calling on rich countries—the largest contributors to climate change—to provide financial support for developing countries’ conservation efforts. 

The report follows Palummo’s December visit to Bolivia, where he toured impacted areas and met with government officials, communities and civil society groups. 

Citing research from Global Forest Watch, Oxfam and academics, the report said agricultural and livestock expansion were responsible for nearly all of Bolivia’s deforestation in recent years. Soybean production and cattle ranching have boomed over a 23-year period ending in 2019, with about 7 million hectares of forest converted to single-crop plantations during that time. Much of that activity happened in Santa Cruz province, the epicenter of last year’s fires. 

Deforestation is linked to more frequent and intense fires because tree loss disrupts the forests’ natural cooling and water cycling process. Trees draw water through their roots and release moisture from their leaves. Clearing land throws this cycle out of balance, resulting in drier, more drought-prone conditions.

According to the report, Bolivia’s fires reached an unprecedented scale last year, with hot spots emerging earlier than usual and fires spreading more rapidly than ever before. In all, 10 million hectares burned with dangerous smoke reaching as far south as Buenos Aires in Argentina. 

Climate change—to which Bolivia has contributed very little—has also played a role in drying out forests. Numerous scientific studies have established a link between climate change and worsening drought conditions, as well as rising temperatures, which contribute to longer and more intense fire seasons.

Rich nations like the United States and countries in Europe are some of the biggest historical emitters of the greenhouse gases warming the planet. Those countries also previously decimated much of their forests and other ecosystems to generate wealth. The United States, for example, has lost 90 percent of its original forests since the 17th century, replacing much of that land with single-crop plantations and urban development.

Those strategies for growth are “increasingly incompatible with a safe and sustainable future under climate change,” Palummo told Inside Climate News in an email. 

“This is a classic climate injustice,” he said, with nations that have contributed relatively little to global warming facing some of the worst climate disasters. They find themselves torn between the need to grow economically and the escalating impacts of climate change that are not of their own making.

“The situation underscores how countries like Bolivia are essentially caught in a trap: the traditional extractive path to development is now directly imperiling their people due to the climate crisis,” Palummo said.

He pointed to other structural factors that he said are worsening the problem, including foreign investment protections that complicate efforts to fight climate change and long-term under-investment in rural and Indigenous territories that hinder governments’ ability to respond to disasters. 

In Bolivia, Indigenous communities that have largely opposed the degradation of the forest were the most severely affected by last year’s fires, according to the report.

“Because of fires and the climate crisis, indigenous peoples have suffered losses that are difficult to calculate,” the report said, emphasizing the link between the peoples and their territories. “The loss of land and natural resources not only compromises their subsistence economy, but also represents a direct threat to their survival.” 

The report noted “enormous concern” about the uncontacted Ayoreo Indigenous peoples who reside in a region affected by the fires.

Last year, Inside Climate News reported from the Bolivian Amazon on one Indigenous community’s fight against the fires, and the industrial agricultural plantations that have infringed on its territory. 

Palummo in his email said Indigenous and rural communities face a double vulnerability: They are disproportionately impacted by climate change and also largely excluded from the benefits of industrial extractivism. 

“In our region the extractive model tends to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few,” he said, referring to Latin American countries. “The revenues it generates rarely translate into structural improvements for the broader population, especially not for those living in the territories directly affected by extractive activities.”

Yet those communities hold critical knowledge of ecosystems and sustainable development possibilities, Palummo said. “These perspectives are not only culturally relevant, but have proven effective in sustaining ecosystems over generations.”

Among the report’s other findings: 

• More than 145,000 children and teenagers were affected by forced displacement, school closures, families’ lost livelihoods and exposure to smoke. Their ailments included respiratory problems, inflamed eyes, dehydration and diarrheal diseases. Thousands more adults were treated for similar health problems linked to the effects of the fires. 

• Fires destroyed staple crops, while cows, pigs and other animals raised for food were burned alive or starved because pastures were destroyed. 

• Fire-ravaged areas paralyzed subsistence hunting and fishing, with animals either fleeing or dying. Food cultivation is expected to face long-term challenges due to fire damage. Thousands of families required food assistance and other aid.

Rivers polluted by the widespread use of agrochemicals and illegal goldmining were further contaminated by the fires’ ash and debris while scorched earth impeded the soil’s ability to absorb rainfall and replenish groundwater. 

The report also noted that dozens of endangered and endemic species—including blue-bearded parrots, tapirs and giant armadillos—along with other wildlife lost habitats or died in the flames and smoke. Incinerated grasslands and old-growth forests released climate-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Bolivia’s responses to fires included issuing disaster declarations, deploying fire brigades and the military more than 800 times and distributing humanitarian aid and medical care. 

“These reactive approaches, based primarily on emergency interventions, tend to overlook the structural causes driving the recurrence of wildfires, such as land-use change and unsustainable agrarian dynamics,” the report said. 

The report called on Bolivia to adopt a national fire management plan that includes ecosystem-based knowledge, is aimed at preventing fires from starting in the first place and incorporates the participation of Indigenous and rural communities. 

The report also recommended that Bolivia repeal laws and policies that incentivize land-use change and deforestation, and that the government commit to performing environmental and social-impact assessments for all activities impacting people and ecosystems.  

In his emailed statement, Palummo notes that the report makes the case for rich countries to meet their commitments to international climate financial funds. Countries like Bolivia need more resources to move from extractive development models while navigating growing climate risks, he said. 

Bolivia’s fires were among many disasters in 2024, Earth’s hottest year on record. Palummo emphasized that the report offers lessons for nations around the world.

“This is not just an environmental issue, but a human rights issue,” Palummo said in his email. “The right to a healthy environment, to health, to water, and even to life and livelihood are at stake when climate-fueled disasters strike. It’s a warning that resonates far beyond Bolivia’s borders.”

Cover photo:  Spanish firefighters stand next to a burning tree during a wildfire in Concepcion, Boliva, on Sept. 24, 2024. Credit: Rodrigo Urzagasti/AFP via Getty Images