Tibet to guard against forest fires
Tibet to guard against forest fires
4 November 2009
published by chinatibet.people.com.cn
Tibet — Tibet will stand on high alert against forest fires from mid-November, according to Tibet’s Bureau of Forestry.
Temperature in the autumn and winter in the forests in the southwestern part of China is higher than in past years, according to forecasts from the State’s Office of the department for forest fire prevention. Thus the forests are facing a higher risk of fire outbreaks.
Since 2006, Tibet has reported 50 forest fire cases with 13 major ones, according to Jieba, a senior official of Tibet’s forestry bureau.
As a result, 856.14 ha of forests were burnt and 325.7 ha were damaged. Since 2009, the ratio of the area of burned and damaged forests has plunged 85 percent and 96 percent, hitting an all-time low in history.
Located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with an average altitude of 4,900 m, Tibet had 13.90 million cube meters of forests in 2005, with 90 percent being natural and primitive ones.
Tibet ranks fifth in China in terms of forest areas and has aforest coverage of 11.31 percent.
