United Nations Plans Aid for Amazon Firefighting
3/30/98
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Title: United Nations Plans Aid for Amazon Firefighting
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 3/30/98
Byline: William Schomberg
BRASILIA, March 30 (Reuters) - Disaster experts from the United Nations met
with Brazilian officials on Monday to explore options for international aid in
the fight against fires ravaging the northern Amazon.
In remote Roraima state on the border with Venezuela, nearly 1,700 soldiers and
firemen are struggling to contain flames in savannah and rainforest, including
the jungle reservation of the primitive Yanomami Indians.
An area the size of Lebanon is believed to have been destroyed in the last two
months in the Amazon's worst fires in recent memory. Officials say an area as
big as Belgium is at risk. Parts of neighboring Venezuela and Guyana are also
ablaze.
In a statement, the Roraima state government said that while some fires had
been extinguished, new outbreaks had been reported close to the Maraca
ecological reservation, an area famous for its biodiversity and which has
already been partially burned.
``Clearly, the situation is serious,'' said Carlos Monteiro Pereira, the head
of a seven-strong U.N. team, during a break in meetings with Brazilian
officials.
``My personal feeling is that the international community is ready to help and
we trust that they do so quickly,'' he said.
The U.N. team arrived in Brazil on Sunday, despite rumblings from the country's
military which has long considered the Amazon a national security issue.
Another group of U.N. disaster experts flew to Indonesia to advise on how to
tackle a new outbreak of forest fires there.
The head of a Brazilian government taskforce set up last week to coordinate
international aid said firefighters in Roraima had requested an extra four
planes and eight helicopters.
Fernando Catao said the feasibility of using big water-carrying planes was one
issue under consideration. Many rivers in the drought-stricken region were too
low to allow the aircraft to collect water, he said.
Officials have also questioned whether water dumped from the sky would
penetrate the forest's thick canopy and reach the fires which advance through
the undergrowth.
A precise list of the equipment needed by Brazil was to be announced later on
Monday and passed on to U.N. headquarters in Geneva. The U.N. would then
contact member countries able to provide the equipment, Catao said.
The U.N. would also provide Brazil with technical know-how to prevent future
outbreaks of fire in the rest of the Amazon.
Scientists say large areas of the rainforest may be drying out amid arid
conditions linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon and they fear outbreaks of
fire in normally humid jungle later this year, when the sub-equatorial dry
season begins.
``The fires in Roraima are a watershed for us,'' Catao said. ``Brazil is not
experienced in big disasters. We are being given a lesson on the need to set up
a (firefighting) system.''
Despite its enormous rainforests, Brazil has no specialized airborne
firefighting equipment and its few trained forest firefighters had never worked
in the Amazon until now.
The head of the Brazilian government's Environment Institute said the United
Nations would help Brazil use long-term climate forecasts and detect areas of
the forest most at risk from fire to draw up a risk management plan for the
Amazon.
Eduardo Martins said local authorities would also be given help to educate poor
subsistence farmers whose crude slash-and-burn techniques are often the source
of forest fires, including those currently raging in Roraima.
``What we're seeing in Brazil right now is a new kind of catastrophe,'' he told
reporters. ``We've never seen anything like this before.''
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