Multiple countries in the Amazon are facing a heightened season of wildfires, causing large swaths of land to be at risk for severe damage.
In Bolivia, more than 56,000 wildfire outbreaks have been recorded since January, accounting for the largest number of wildfires in the country since 2010. Over 3 million hectares of land have been burned. Traditionally Bolivia’s wildfire season peaks in August and September but officials are preparing to continue fighting fires until possibly years end. 8,000 people have been confirmed affected in over 40 municipalities within the country. Officials have reported that getting accurate information out of the affected areas is proving incredibly difficult. They suspect the actual number of affected people is much higher, around 73,500. Bolivia has declared a national state of emergency and has invited international support to assist with combating the wildfires.
Wildfire season in Paraguay typically peaks in the fall but by March of 2024 more than 100 forest fires had already broken out. The fires destroyed land, causing a significant amount of environmental damage and raised concerns about air quality and the safety of nearby communities. Currently, the country is facing another series of severe wildfires primarily concentrated in the Chaco Paraguayo region. More than 84,000 hectares of forest have been burned in this region alone with more than 105,000 hectares burned across the country. These fires are posing a huge threat to land and biodiversity with many protected regions and nature reserves currently at risk. Firefighters are working with local communities to try and contain the fires but have flagged that they do not have enough resources to cover the efforts needed.
This year’s wildfire season in Peru has also been significant, causing at least 16 deaths and the burning of about 3,000 hectares of forest, protected areas, and agricultural land in 22 of 24 Peruvian regions, and 1,800 more civilians were impacted by the fires. These fires continue to burn and affect rainforest, over 240 have been burning in September alone. These fires threaten vital forest area in the range of the Andes mountains and continue to threaten the public.
The worst drought on record in Brazil is exacerbating a critical wildfire situation in the Amazon rainforest. Smoke from the wildfires is decreasing air quality, grounding flights and shutting down schools. More than 38,000 fire outbreaks were reported in the Amazon in August which is a 120% increase compared to the same period last year. The majority of those fighting the fires on the front lines are rural volunteer units and more resources are desperately needed in order to calm the spread of the fires.
GlobalMedic has been running our expanded wildfire response program in Canada since 2023. The goal of the program is to provide additional resources to assist rural and volunteer fire departments in their wildfire responses so they can better protect their communities. To date, GlobalMedic has donated over 200 fire skids to fire departments across Canada and plans to distribute dozens more this year.
We are taking lessons learned from the response to unprecedented fires here at home and working with our local partners to create impactful responses to the wildfires burning in Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Brazil.
RescUAV
GlobalMedic’s RescUAV team deployed to Bolivia to provide training and equipment to increase the capacity of departments responding to the wildfires. Our RescUAV team uses advanced drone technology for situational awareness, damage assessment, and mapping of the disaster area. Our team brought UAVs to hand off to local officials and conducted training for responders on how to use UAVs in wildfire response.
Fire Skids
Just like our Canadian Wildfire Program, our efforts internationally also prioritize increasing the capacity of local fire departments so they have more tools available to fight the wildfires. GlobalMedic Rapid Response Teams have been working with fabricators to produce fire skid units locally in Bolivia. These units are modelled after the fire skids we utilize here in Canada. They are a self-contained unit with a large tank, pump and fire hose, which can be placed in the back of a pick up truck to create another response vehicle. Modifications have been made to account for the realities of fighting fires in the Bolivian context. Our team has distributed 10 fire skid units to Bolivian fire departments to date.
