Fires have been ravaging the Bolivian lowlands for over a month. Nearly ten million acres have already burned, an area larger than Connecticut and New Jersey combined. Almost half the destruction lies in protected areas known for high biodiversity. It is a tragedy.

The Chiquitanía, a dry forest ecosystem between Amazonia and Gran Chaco in the province of Santa Cruz, is at the center of the crisis. The fires threaten the survival of the region’s wildlife and indigenous people. The Ñembi Guasu Reserve, home to indigenous Ayoreo groups in voluntary isolation, is the most affected area. In the autonomous Guaraní community of Charagua Iyambae, thousands of acres of forest have been destroyed. Residents are pleading for help to stop the fires .

The destruction is incommensurable.

Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first ever indigenous president, promised to defend Pachamama, or Mother Earth. Instead his government has promoted the interests of agribusiness. His government has enabled aggressive land grabs that have led to deforestation and indigenous dispossession, as President Jair Bolsonaro has done in Brazil. No wonder the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin accused them both of environmental genocide.