Statement on the fires in the Amazon forests of Bolivia and Brazil

August 23, 2019

The fires in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and Bolivia have been burning for three weeks now. Thousands of acres of forests have been lost.

Although Amazon Conservation cannot stop the current fires from happening – at this point, only national and local authorities can – we can help prevent them from happening.  We are doing our part to support current efforts in Bolivia, by working with several organizations to generate reliable information to implement actions that are helping firefighters and inhabitants of affected areas.

Amazon Conservation has been working on the ground in the Amazon of Peru and Bolivia for 20 years, and providing local communities and governments with fire prevention training and supplies, so that local people can be better prepared and at the forefront of preventing and fighting forest fires. We also work directly with land owners to help them manage their land in a more sustainable manner, to reduce fire risk, if they do happen, to limit their spread and impact.

Not only do we carryout this on-the-ground, in-country support, but we also provide governments and the general public with key information about new fires in the western Amazon. Using our real-time satellite monitoring program (MAAP), we quickly locate burning forests and report this information in real-time to local authorities so that they can take action on the ground before the situation escalates as it has in Brazil. By releasing this information publicly on our website, we provide the public with key data on deforestation that is happening now so that they can compel authorities to take action.

“The majority of fires are caused by human activity,” said John Beavers, Amazon Conservation’s Executive Director. “And only human activity can prevent and stop them. Now more than ever we need to band together. In the same way that the world came together to reconstruct the Notre Dame Cathedral when it burned, we must do the same for the Amazon now.”

Consider making a donation to prevent fires in the Amazon here: https://bit.ly/2q2Tmwh