Wildfires are sweeping through Argentina’s Patagonia region, consuming more than 450sq km (175sq miles) of native forests, including parts of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Los Alerces National Park.

Thousands of people have been evacuated as flames spread through Chubut province, threatening ancient alerce trees, which can live for more than 3,600 years.

The crisis has intensified criticism of President Javier Milei’s aggressive austerity policies.

His administration’s “chainsaw” spending cuts have slashed the National Fire Management Service’s budget by 71 percent in real terms compared with last year, according to the environmental group FARN.

“These fires are absolutely predictable,” said Ariel Slipak, an economist at FARN, arguing that Milei has prioritised fiscal balance “at all costs” over emergency preparedness.

The burned area has surpassed last summer’s entire fire season damage of 325sq km (125sq miles). As firefighters battle strong winds and high temperatures, Milei declared a state of emergency on Thursday, allocating about $69m for firefighting efforts.

Environmental advocates point to climate change as an exacerbating factor with Greenpeace’s Hernan Giardini saying: “To continue denying or underestimating the effects of climate change, which science and the ecological movement have long warned about, is a political irresponsibility that will be paid for by forests and homes.”

Milei, who has called climate change a “socialist lie” and is considering withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, faces mounting pressure as the fires have now destroyed an area more than twice the size of Buenos Aires.

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