Less than a year after being devastated by Bolivia's worst wildfires, vegetation is slowly returning around the sesame fields of Julia Ortiz, an Indigenous farmer from the Chiquitania region in the east of the country. While her community is relying on an innovative reforestation method using "bombitas" — small soil balls filled with seeds and launched with a sling — the charred tree trunks at her feet are a stark reminder of recent slash-and-burn activity. This practice, which involves burning a plot of land to make it cultivable, is sometimes the cause of severe wildfires, especially as droughts become more frequent and prolonged due to climate change, according to scientists. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES