Earlier this year, peat fires in Chile’s Tierra del Fuego burned for more than a month and destroyed 1,200 hectares of native forest. The fires killed plants and animals and released carbon into the air. It has been suggested that quicker action at central level could have prevented the fire from reaching such a scale. What do you think Latin America and the Caribbean can do as a region to promote coordinated and rapid fire responses?
AND: A coordinated approach requires planned, permanent, systematic and joint work, with a particular focus on communities directly exposed to this threat. In this context, fire prevention should be addressed to the population living in dangerous areas. However, adequate funding is needed for such efforts. Effective fire response also requires understanding the ecosystem in question, its vulnerability or adaptation to fire, the amount of fuel available, the assets, infrastructure and lives at risk, and the likelihood that a fire outbreak will turn into a wildfire. It is important to promote regional networks for cooperation, especially between countries with similar ecosystems and threats.
What kind of legal protection do peatlands have in Argentina, Chile and Peru?
AND: There is no specific legal protection for peatlands in these countries. In the case of Peru, which has extensive peatlands, significant progress has been made under a recent wetlands protection decree, specifically referring to peatlands, which prohibits peat extraction for commercial purposes. In Chile there is a peatland bill banning the extraction of pompon, the Chilean name for sphagnum moss, currently in the final stages of approval. In July 2021, lawmakers in Argentina began debating the creation of a law to regulate human interventions in wetlands. In South America, there is an urgent need for countries to adopt strong and dedicated environmental protection laws for wetlands.
