World Bank Funds Amazon Fire Prevention
9/15/98
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: World Bank Funds Amazon Fire Prevention
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyrighted, contact source for reprint permissions
Date: 9/15/98
WASHINGTON, DC, September 15, 1998 (ENS) - The World Bank has approved a
US$15 million loan to prevent and control large-scale wildfires in the
southern part of the Brazilian Amazon during the upcoming dry season of
1998.
Scheduled to begin this month, the project will assist federal, state, and
municipal environmental agencies in the Amazon to monitor the risk and
occurrence of fire. The emergency project will focus on preventing and
controlling wildfires in the forests of the southern Amazon to protect
human life, infrastructure, biodiversity, and watersheds.
The funds will provide training in fire prevention and control techniques.
A rapid response task force will be established to combat major fires, if
and when they occur. The goal is development of a system of rapid response
to fires which could be used in future emergencies, including other
disasters and accidents.
The project will focus on high-risk areas identified by weather data,
modeling, and satellite imagery. In addition, for the medium-term, the
project will support the strengthening of federal, state, and municipal
emergency preparedness through the Civil Defense System and other relevant
institutions.
Some of the money will go towards an education and public awareness
campaign.
The Brazilian Amazonn contains nearly one-third of the world's remaining
tropical rainforests and provides an invaluable source of biodiversity and
protection of the watershed of the world's largest river.
Each year, a large amount of forest is burned accidentally by fires that
get out of control -fires started by farmers and ranchers clearing land
to plant crops or renew pasture.
In March, an area roughly the size of Belgium burned in Brazil's northern
state of Roirama. The Roraima government had no forest fire expertise or
equipment to draw on. Roraima authorities declared themselves impotent to
stop the fires spreading.
The risk of these fires escaping is higher during the dry season,
particularly in 1998 due to the El Nio weather pattern which has caused a
dramatic drop in rainfall compared to other years.
The World Bank funding is expected to result in reduced occurrence of
large-scale fires and the associated economic and health losses of
residents of the southern Amazon, so the March disaster in Roirama state
is not repeated farther south.
"The project does not seek to prevent all burning in the Amazon region,
since fire is an efficient tool that has traditionally been used for
clearing land over many generations," said Project Co-Task Manager Daniel
Gross of the Sustainable Development Unit in the Latin America Region.
"Rather the project's goal is to prevent fires from burning out of control
during this particularly dry year, and to generate lessons on how to
better manage fire in the region. The main focus is on the local community
where fire is used," Gross said.
c Environment News Service (ENS) 1998