Fire Threatens Peru National Park
9/2/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Fire threatens Peru national park
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 2, 1999
Firefighters battled a large fire today that threatened to destroy
portions of Peru's Manu National Park, considered by many scientists
to be the most diverse center of wildlife and fauna on the planet.
Luis Antonio Ponce, chief of Cuzco's fire squad, said the fire was
spreading and additional forces were moving to help quell the blaze,
which started Wednesday morning in the park's southernmost tip, a
high grassland area.
The fire had "taken on greater proportions," he told The Associated
Press. "We are coordinating firefighters and the military to send
reinforcements."
The fire's cause was unknown, and its size was not immediately clear.
Such blazes are not uncommon this time of year, as indigenous farmers
clear patches of grassland for cultivation, said Boris Gomez, owner
of Manu Nature Tours in Cuzco.
Covering 4.6 million acres between Peru's Cuzco and Madre de Dios
provinces, Manu National Park was declared a biosphere reserve by
UNESCO in 1977. The park, 350 miles east of Lima, was added to the
World Heritage list ten years later.