Heavy rain that has drenched eastern Bolivia's Chiquitania tropical savanna has put out fires that have ravaged millions of hectares in recent months, authorities said on Sunday.
More than two million wild animals, including jaguars, pumas and llamas, have perished in weeks of wildfires that devastated huge swathes of Bolivian forest and grassland, environmental experts said on Wednesday. The fires devastated the Chiquitania tropical savanna in the east of the country.
Bolivia's President Evo Morales and Argentina's presidential frontrunner Alberto Fernández met Thursday evening in Santa Cruz de la Sierra to discuss Latin American region and possible future joint actions.
Argentine forest firefighter Jhonatan Villalva had to be ferried Wednesday to a medical facility after suffering from poisoning by smoke as a result of his deployment to the fire-plagued Chiquitanía area in Bolivia.
In the tropical Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, a wealthy farming hub on the edge on the Amazon rainforest, President Evo Morales gathered with ranchers late last month to celebrate a maiden shipment of beef to China.
Wildfires raging in Bolivia's forests and grasslands since May have destroyed 1.7 million hectares, officials said on Wednesday, amid a US$11 million effort by the government to contain them.
Fires have destroyed 1.2 million hectares of forest and grasslands in Bolivia this year, the government said on Wednesday, though environmentalists claim the true figure is much greater.
Weak rainfall is unlikely to extinguish a record number of fires raging in Brazil's Amazon anytime soon, with pockets of precipitation through to Sept 10 expected to bring only isolated relief, according to weather data and two experts.
Bolivia's president Evo Morales gave a half-hearted welcome on Tuesday to a G7 pledge of US$20 million to fight the Amazon wildfires, describing it as tiny. An underwhelmed Morales said the aid from the most industrialized countries was part of the world's obligation to preserve the Amazon rainforest.
Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Sunday he is open to international aid to fight the blazes that have engulfed rural villages and doubled in size since Thursday. Morales is also suspending his campaign for re-election for at least a week, just two months from election day, to focus on the wildfires.