La Paz (AFP)
Fires that have devastated more than 1.2 million hectares since the beginning of the year in Bolivia have also damaged rock art sites in the east of the country, local authorities said Tuesday.
"We believe that the damage is significant on this cultural heritage of rock art," said Panamanian radio Danilo Drakic, archaeologist from the government of Santa Cruz (east), one of the departments most affected by fires in recent years. weeks.
According to the specialist, "the soot has covered the paintings with a black layer and stones have broken, some have even collapsed, under the effect of heat" in several sites around the city of Roboré.
The damage will be known precisely after the work of a technical mission that will be sent to the scene as soon as the fires are completely under control, he added.
The town of Roboré, located 1,300 km from La Paz, was recognized in 2017 as "departmental capital of rock art". Scientific research has established that several human groups lived there between 1500 and 1100 BC.
The Bolivian Ministry of Culture also warned of the dangers posed by the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos, classified as World Heritage Sites in 1990 and located in the north of the country, also in the grip of fires.
These sites "have not been touched yet," but they "run a danger," the ministry said.
Firefighters are still hard at work fighting fires, especially in the Santa Cruz department. The government announced last week that 85% of the fires were under control. The fires, which broke out in May, with a sharp increase in August, have already devastated 1.2 million hectares of forest and grassland, according to the authorities.
© 2019 AFP