"There's nothing left" - Bolivia wildfires leaves path of destruction for indigenous
Record ID:
1428523
"There's nothing left" - Bolivia wildfires leaves path of destruction for indigenous
- Title: "There's nothing left" - Bolivia wildfires leaves path of destruction for indigenous
- Date: 25th August 2019
- Summary: TAPERAS, SANTA CRUZ PROVINCE, BOLIVIA (AUGUST 24, 2019) (REUTERS) SUN SHINING THROUGH SMOKE FLAMES BURNING GENERAL VIEW OF FLAMES CONSUMING TREES GENERAL VIEW OF SECTION OF FIRE IPIAS, SANTA CRUZ PROVINCE, BOLIVIA (AUGUST 24, 2019) (REUTERS) SUPERTANKER FLYING OVER AND DUMPING WATER ON FIRES IN THE COMMUNITY OF IPIAS GENERAL VIEW OF EULOGIO CESARE'S HOME VARIOUS OF CESARE'S WIFE FIXING HER HAIR BIRDS GENERAL VIEW OF CESARE WORKING ON WOOD CESARE'S HANDS WORKING ON WOOD CESARE WORKING CESARE'S FACE BIRD CESARE WITH HIS GRANDCHILD (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ELUGIO CESARE, A CHIQUITANO INDIGENOUS TRIBE MEMBER, SAYING: "Everything has burned in the fields, especially the wood, in this fire. I am a carpenter and that is my job and that is how I provide for my family." GENERAL VIEW OF MEMBERS OF CESARE'S FAMILY VARIOUS OF CESARE FAMILY INSIDE THEIR HOME, PREPARING FOOD POT BREAKFAST (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ELUGIO CESARE, A CHIQUITANO INDIGENOUS TRIBE MEMBER, SAYING: "It's very sad to see everything that has been lost. There's nothing left to work with. Before, there was plenty to work with but you go into the field now and even the animals, the birds have burned. There's nothing left, we lived off of all that. We would go and hunt for our food but everything has burned." GENERAL VIEW OF CESARE FAMILY HAVING BREAKFAST VARIOUS OF FAMILY HAVING BREAKFAST (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ELUGIO CESARE, A CHIQUITANO INDIGENOUS TRIBE MEMBER, SAYING: "We ask God and the town's patron saint, Saint Antonio, to calm the flames, for once and for all, to calm the flames and for there to be rain. May there be a rain that will extinguish the fire once and for all." VARIOUS MORE OF CESARE WITH MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY
- Embargoed: 8th September 2019 04:44
- Keywords: Boliva wildfires indigenous family destruction aftermath Amazon
- Location: TAPERAS AND IPIAS, SANTA CRUZ PROVINCE, BOLIVIA
- City: TAPERAS AND IPIAS, SANTA CRUZ PROVINCE, BOLIVIA
- Country: Bolivia
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Fires,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001ATKVARR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The sun hid behind thick smoke from near-by blazes on Saturday (August 24) in the Bolivian town of Ipias, a community of indigenous Chiquitanos where the forest fires were reactivated during the night.
Wildfires have already burned more than 800,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) of tropical forest in Bolivia. A Boeing SuperTanker 747 fire-fighting plane also made rounds over the area, dumping water on the flames.
For Eulogio Secare, a 74-year-old indigenous carpenter, the arrival of the sophisticated SuperTanker brings little hope for the future.
Cesare, an indigenous Chiquitano, dedicated to carpentry still hunts animals in the forest for a living but the forest he and his family -wife, two children and three grandchildren- depended on to survive has now probably been lost for decades.
The wood from the forest that Cesare used to make furniture, he then sold in the community of Taperas and in the town of Robore, have now been reduced to debris.
Just like Cesare, many residents of the Bolivian Amazon, who were apparently poor but survived with what nature gave them, are in the dilemma of whether they should stay, starve or migrate.
Cesare, like most of indigenous people living in the region - some 1.4 million people - who live in the department of Santa Cruz, are in a similar situation. Despite his old age, Cesare considers migrating to the city, because even if the fire is extinguished, the future of his community has been threatened.
The Chiquitano people was formed by the merge of different Indigenous groups placed together in villages of Jesuit missions in the 17th Century. They live in the region of the border between Brazil and Bolivia.
(Production: Monica Machicao) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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