South America Ablaze

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of forests.org

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9/9/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by forests.org

Sorry to be in such a rut, but here is another forest fire horror

story--South America is ablaze. Where are the news stories? Guess

not very important, huh?

g.b.

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Title: South America Ablaze

Source: Environment News Service

Date: September 3, 1999

BRASILIA, Brazil, September 3, 1999 (ENS) - Forest and brush fires by

the thousands are burning in western Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, and

Paraguay. These countries are now in the midst of the winter dry

season, and farmers clearing fields for cotton, cane and other crops

have set most of the fires.

Brazil's National Space Research Institute said their satellite had

sighted 1,770 wildfires over the states of Mato Grosso and Mato

Grosso do Sul during the past week, up from 270 wildfires in the same

region in July.

Brazil's Energy Mininister Rodolfo Tourinho said the fires have

damaged some electrical transmission lines.

In Peru, a fire is destroying vast areas of the natural reserve of

the Manu people, in the Peruvian forest. Fire fighting officials in

the zone have redoubled their efforts to choke the flames.

The fire originated Thursday in the sector of Akanaku, located in

route from access to the National Park of the Manu. This park is

located 570 kilometres (353 miles) east of Lima. The cause of the

fire is unknown.

Manu National Park,one of the main tourist attractions of Peru, is an

ecosystem of great wealth in fauna and wild flora in the heart of the

Peruvian Amazon forest on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains.

The Brazilian Institute for Environment and Natural Resources

(IBAMA) says most of the fires in Brazil must be seen in the context

of intensive land development. Fire is used as a tool in forest

conversion. This is done by small farmers as well as large agro-

industrial companies.

The careless use of fire often allows the "prescribed" burnings to

escape and become forest fires in the adjacent forests. These

wildfires are of global importance because they threaten global

biodiversity as well as the livelihood and cultural identity of the

indigenous people in Amazonia, IBAMA says.

Almost all fires in the Amazon Region are human-caused, natural fires

play a minor role in the tropical rain forest of Brazil and

neighbouring countries. In the seasonally dry forests and bush

formations (cerrado) lightning fires are observed only occasionally.

Government officials are tracking down those responsible for the

fires, but they have little money and only six helicopters to cover

the whole of central Brazil.

A plane on loan from the United States, loaded with digital cameras

and thermal sensors flew in Wednesday to provide exact data on areas

devastated by fires and illegal logging, even when visibility is low

due to smoke.

IBAMA says that Proarco - Program of Prevention and Control to the

Forest fires and Forest Fires in the Arc of the Deforestation - was

created in last July with US$ 25.9 million from the World Bank and

the Brazilian government. The action came in response to the biggest

forest fire ever in Brazil in the State of Roraima in March 1998.

The government's main action to avoid fire disasters involved

prevention, then a combat strategy involving the Secretariat of

Regional Politics, IBAMA, the Body of Firemen of the Federal

District, the Army and the Division of Aeronautics.

But the government campaign highlighting the dangers of setting

unsupervised fires during the dry season has been ignored by most

people.

In Bolivia, a rural celebration meant to prepare the land for next

year's harvest triggered fires across two provinces. The government

declared Guarayos and Moxos provinces "national disaster areas" last

week. With winds gusting at 100 kilometres per hour, the fire spread

quickly across 100,000 hectares.

According to early estimates, 650 homes were destroyed. Nearly

3,000 people are sleeping in makeshift shelters, suffering from cold

and hunger.

c Environment News Service (ENS)

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