Brazil Launches Plan to Prevent and Put Out Amazon Fires
7/8/98
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Title: Brazil Launches Plan to Prevent and Put Out Amazon Fires
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 7/8/98
BRASILIA, July 8 (Reuters) - Brazil on Wednesday launched a plan to
prevent and put out fires in its Amazon region amid fears that dry conditions
there may
lead to a repeat of a huge blaze earlier this year.
The programme includes the creation of a rapid deployment team of 500
firemen capable of reaching any point of Brazil's vast Amazon in 48 hours.
But it seeks mainly to teach poor farmers to use fire to clear their
land only under controlled conditions.
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, speaking at the launch of the plan,
said the Brazilian government had taken the necessary steps to protect
the Amazon after huge fires which raged earlier this year in northern
Roraima state.
``We are now beginning -- and I insist, beginning -- to do what is
essential. Coordination is essential,'' Cardoso said.
When the fires broke out in Roraima in January, it took federal and local
authorities nearly two months to come up with a coordinated plan of action.
Under the new programme, all levels of government will try to work together to
prevent
fires, locate any blazes that break out and extinguish them quickly.
Cardoso said a latest estimate of the damage caused by the fires in Roraima
found 1,158 square miles (3,000 square km) -- an area larger than Luxembourg --
of forest
were affected, although in most of that area only low undergrowth burned.
A larger area of savannah whose size has not yet been confirmed also went
up in smoke, although the vegetation in the grasslands is naturally fire
resistant.
``The fire in Roraima had a much smaller impact than was announced at the
time,'' said
Cardoso, who was widely criticised for his government's response to the crisis.
``But we're not here to say nothing happened in Roraima. It did and we
responded.''
The Brazilian government is particularly worried about the risk of fires this
dry season
in a so-called arc of deforestation stretching across the southern Amazon
region.
Logging and farming have already eaten into the jungle in the arc, reducing the
forest's
natural resistance to fire.
Some environmentalists fear that the El Nino weather phenomenon will intensify
this
year's dry season in the Amazon, adding to the likelihood of fires.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited