Record wildfires ravage Peru's ecosystems and wildlife
A record number of fires tore through Peru over the past few weeks, wreaking havoc across the country's ecosystems as grasslands, dry forests, coastal areas and the Amazon ablaze were set ablaze.
In northern Peru, spectacled bears fled burning dry forests to nearby towns were some were shot by frightened residents.
Jaguars in the southern Amazon with nowhere to flee were left stiff and charred on trees. Grasslands and wetlands around the countrybthat play a key role in storing water storage were left in ashes.
"The rainforest is usually impervious to fire," said Paul Rosalie, a conservationist and founder of JungleKeepers, an NGO that patrols and preserves the Amazon in Peru, adding that they've seen burned turtles, snakes, birds and jaguars after recent patrols.
The Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which tracks wildfires by satellite, shows around 10,400 fires for Peru in 2024, more than double the previous record in 2020 and nearly 2.5 times the total area burned.
Record fires have been recorded this year, with Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay registering the largest numbers.
Aside from being a hotter year with less rainfall and higher temperatures after the end of El Nino weather phenomenon, there was a lack of coordinated government response and lots of human-started fires for agricultural purposes, according to environmental organizations.
Peru's President Dina Boluarte acknowledged the country lacked the logistics to fight the fires when she declared a state of emergency in mid-September.
"It's a combination of factors, and the government is not trained to help," said Robyn Appleton, founder of the Spectacled Bear Conservation (SBC), an NGO that's been working for nearly two decades protecting and studying a unique population of spectacled bears in Peru's northern dry forests.
Alexander Moore, executive director of the SBC, says the bears have adapted to the drier climate and are able to go months without water, unlike other spectacled bears across the Andes.
With only a few hundred bears in the population, Moore says conserving every one is essential to their survival and the health of the ecosystem.
But Moore says modifications to a forestry law in January that make it easier to turn forested land into agricultural land by removing some environmental requirements and emboldening local farmers to burn more land.
"We're really afraid and that's why we're trying to do everything we can to work with the community to deal with this because it isn't going to stop," Moore said, saying the extreme weather and demand for land will continue along with weaker environmental regulations.
(Production: Alexander Villegas, Liamar Ramos)