Jeff Abbott writes in The Progressive Magazine about the current challenges facing Guatemala with regard to preventing and managing the many forest fires that have been registered during this period of El Niño and being exacerbated by climate change in the region. The piece also highlights the fact that Indigenous communities are being left to fend for themselves because of limited government capacity.
Wildfires driven by the effects of El Niño and climate change are raging across Central America. Thousands of fires have burned around 660,475 acres in Honduras; 43,497acres in El Salvador; 715,886 acres in Nicaragua; and 208,223 acres in Costa Rica, according to data from the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which looked at the region from January 1 to April 9, 2024.
As Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo nears his first 100 days in office, the country has seen a wave of over 1,600 wildfires break out across the country. According to the data from GWIS, 522,459 acres have burned; however, the Guatemalan government’s National Coordination for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) has tracked only 47,860 acres as affected by wildfires. In the previous fire season between 2022 and 2023, CONRED registered 980 fires during the dry season. In the current season, there has been a worsening of fires due to the drier effects of El Niño and a political crisis.
Since the beginning of Guatemala’s dry season, fires have consumed vegetation across the country. Fires have consumed the banks of the picturesque Agua volcano in February, and firefighters are working to put out a fire in the landfill run by the Authority for the Sustainable Management of the Lake Amatitlán Basin (AMSA) just south of Guatemala City, which has created health concerns for the region.
As of April 19, there are fifty-five active wildfires across Guatemala.
The spread of fires is being strengthened by the effects caused by El Niño, and climate change is exacerbating these effects.
You can read the full piece, including links and an infographic from CONRED (Coordinadora Nacional para la Reducción de Desastres de Guatemala), here, Central America Faces Intense Wildfire Season.
Categories: Environment, Guatemala, Indigenous peoples, Land, Natural Disaster, Poverty
Guatemala Solidarity Network 
Post comments here