Bolivia needs congress to approve two multilateral loans totaling US$325mn to fight forest fires, President Luis Arce said after his government declared a nationwide emergency as the country has lost over 7mn hectares in recent weeks.
“We call all on legislators, deputies and senators that we have seen making statements to news outlets showing their concern over these fires. Now it is in your hands to facilitate these resources that were sent in advance through bills from the national government, foreseeing that this kind of situation could occur,” Arce was quoted as saying by state news service ABI.
The first loan involves US$75mn from Latin American development bank CAF to finance climate adaptation efforts, including reconstruction programs, documents show.
The second is a US$250mn contingency loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to improve disaster response and soften the effects of climate-related disasters on public finances.
Both bills were submitted to congress during September.
Arce said the resources can be used to acquire additional planes to extinguish forest fires, as well as more equipment for firefighters and to support housing reconstruction.
Multilateral loans have been a matter of tension between Arce and legislators during the past year as opposition lawmakers and the faction backing former president Evo Morales have blocked the approval of several operations tied to infrastructure, water, energy and land management, among others.
Two weeks ago, the government claimed there were over US$1bn in multilateral financing stuck in congress, and directly blamed former Arce ally Morales and his supporters.
Santa Cruz department estimated that around 7mn hectares have been lost so far this year, surpassing previous mass wildfires seen in 2010 and 2019, and 45 fires remained active as of Friday.
Before the current emergency, the central government had reported that 3.8mn hectares across the country had been burnt as of August 31.
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Publish date : 2024-09-30 07:55:00
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