To burn or replant: Bolivian farmers weigh their options after a devastating wildfire

A log left from the wildfire that ravaged the Chiquitania region of Bolivia last year.

Less than a year after the worst wildfires in Bolivia’s history, farmers face a choice: continue starting blazes to clear land for agriculture, or plant trees to mitigate worsening droughts.

Around 10.7 million hectares (26.4 million acres) of dry tropical forest – an area about the size of Portugal – went up in smoke in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands last year, according to the non-profit Bolivian Institute for Forest Research (IBIF).