Forest Fires Cooled Off
So Far This Year
(InfoWebPress –
www.journalcr.com) – The
Ministry of the
Environment and Energy (MINAE)
announced that the
country has been able to
reduce the impact of
forest fires so far in
2008 to 23,417 affected
hectares, compared to
32,422 hectares in 2007.
MINAE’s report indicated
that the reduction in
forest fires in the past
five years “has
permitted the
regeneration of areas
that will become forests
and the protection of
water sources and
biodiversity present in
those sites.”
The total reduction in
burned forest this year
compared to 2007 is
above 9,000 hectares
(some 22,500 acres),
both within national
parks and other
protected areas and
inside private woodlands
— which have been
impacted the most this
year, totaling 15,500
affected hectares.
In addition to the work
conducted by the
National Insurance
Institute's (INS)
Firefighters Corps and
MINAE to prevent and
control forest fires in
protected areas,
companies such as
Peninsula Papagayo — the
concessionaire of the
Papagayo Tourism
Development, which
includes 900 hectares of
protected forest — has
its own support brigade
that has helped the
Guanacaste Conservation
Area (ACG) and
communities surrounding
the Tourism Development.
The Peninsula Papagayo's
forest fire brigade has
13 firefighters, four
paramedics and a
physician, properly
equipped to provide
attention to key areas
and carry out constant
monitoring and
prevention activities in
places such as the
Horizontes Forestry
Station, the Santa Rosa
National Park and the
Iguanita National
Wildlife Refuge.
Regarding the cause of
some of the fires, the
MINAE study found that
the conflagrations were
mostly initiated by
individuals as they
engaged in agricultural
or pasture burns; others
were caused by campfires
that were not properly
put out; and at least 27
fires were the result of
arson.
In the dry season of
2008 (beginning of the
year), a total of 460
hectares burned within
protected wildlife
areas. The most affected
conservation areas
included the national
parks of Santa Rosa,
Barra Honda and
Guanacaste; the Border
Corridor National
Wildlife Refuge; the
Corral de Piedra
Wetland; and the
protection areas of
Cerro La Cruz and Cerros
La Carpintera (both in
the San Jose area).
The months of March and
April were the most
critical for forest
fires in Costa Rica this
year. And now that a new
dry season is about to
begin (the Costa Rican
“summer” runs from
mid-December to April),
the incidence of forest
fires is expected to
increase again —
particularly in the
scorching flatlands of
Guanacaste, home to the
vanishing and fire-prone
dry tropical forest.
There, fires get started
that end up affecting a
large portion of the
province (a total of
32,000 hectares), reason
for which officials are
already taking
precautions to keep the
losses as low as
possible.
Officials are now
engaged in prevention
measures, including the
construction of 1,105
kilometers of fire
barriers such as
scraping of dry
vegetation along roads,
auxiliary highway
buffers, and firebreaks.
In Guanacaste in the
past few years, forest
fires have caused
significant damages to
historical monuments and
natural treasures. A
2001 fire consumed the
Casona de Santa Rosa — a
300-year-old hacienda
homestead that played an
important role in the
anti-slavery expansion
war of 1856 against U.S.
filibusters.
And last April 1, a fire
in Cerro La Pita (within
the Santa Rosa National
Park) affected natural
savannah grasslands,
areas of natural
regeneration, and
charral grasses.
Fortunately, this fire
was promptly addressed
thanks to the fact that
Environment Minister
Roberto Dobles had
ordered a “permanent
alert” during the dry
season in Guanacaste —
which allowed the
National Conservation
Areas System (SINAC) and
the National Forest
Fires Commission (CONIFOR)
to fight the fire
quickly as they were
already conducting
constant patrols in the
area to keep fire damage
to a minimum. |
