Forest fires have been burning in multiple areas of Argentina’s Patagonia region since December, prompting the mobilization of hundreds of firefighters. As of Thursday, the fires had spread to over 25,000 hectares, according to official reports. Hernán Giardini, coordinator of the Greenpeace Argentina Forest Campaign, stated that “it is safe” to say this is one of the seasons with the greatest forest loss in a long time, adding that “February is still to come.”
The fires have resulted in one death and the destruction of over a hundred houses in the past week. The affected area is equivalent to the size of the city of Buenos Aires, covering parts of the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, and Chubut. This is more than three times the surface area of Patagonian Andean forests affected in the summer of 2023/2024, when 7,747 hectares were lost.
Giardini noted that the summer was expected to be complicated due to high temperatures, strong winds, and a drought in the region caused by the climate phenomenon known as La Niña. The Magdalena Valley in the Lanín National Park, Neuquén, has been particularly affected, with over 5,000 hectares of forest damaged. According to Luciana Ortiz Luna, Secretary of Emergencies and Risk Management of the Province, “the adverse weather conditions” have fueled the fires.
The Single Operations Coordination (CUO) activated a red alert on Wednesday, summoning firefighters from the center of the country to support those already working on the fires in Neuquén. The National Director of CUO, Gustavo Nicola, traveled to the area with 46 brigades to provide relief and support to the firefighters, who are at the limit of their operational and physical capacity.
In the Nahuel Huapi National Park, located between Neuquén and Río Negro, the fires started at the end of December and have affected over 10,700 hectares. Giardini warned that the recovery of these forests will be difficult and may take up to 200 years. In the south of Río Negro, two active fires in El Bolsón have affected around 3,000 hectares, resulting in one death, 120 destroyed houses, and the evacuation of over a thousand people.
In Chubut, two fires that started in mid-January remain active, covering 3,200 and 3,500 hectares, respectively. The governors of Chubut and Río Negro, Ignacio Torres and Alberto Weretilneck, stated that the origin of most of the fires was intentional.