Mass campaign launched to fight forest fires
Mass campaign launched to fight forest fires
16 February 2017
published by http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
INDIA - KOZHIKODE: With forests facing increased threat of fire outbreaks due to intense summer and a deficient monsoon, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) officials have adopted a mass campaign mode with grassroots-level participation for preventing them.
As many as 800 volunteers, including students and members of nature clubs in schools and environmental activists, have already visited around 18,000 houses in 100 settlements in the forest fringes to sensitise villagers about the dangers of forest fires over the last weekend. Apart from telling the villagers about the steps to be taken to prevent forest fires, hotline numbers to be contacted in case of sighting them were also provided. “We decided to take up a mass campaign as the support of the local community is vital in combating forest fires. The department alone cannot ensure a fire-free summer season,” said P Dhanesh Kumar, warden, WWS. The programme under the slogan `Save Water, Save Forest’ has been organised by the forest department, in association with the Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti and Bengaluru-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Dhanesh Kumar said that the department is in the process of implementing an intensive programme to build 259 check dams and revive the 134 ponds inside the forests to ensure water availability inside the sanctuary .
“Already the effects of intense drought in the adjoining wildlife sanctuaries of Nagarahole and Bandipur are visible with a steady flow of wild animals to WWS in search of water and fodder. The animals are likely to stray into human habitations if there is water scarcity in the sanctuary,” he said.
Also 16 eco development committees and 107 tribal hamlet committees have been pressed into service to maintain round the clock vigil against forest fires. That apart, regular department work like laying of fire lines, deployment of additional fire watchers and intensification of patrolling in fire-prone areas have been completed.
“This is the biggest participatory fire-prevention campaign to be conducted by the forest department in the state. We would be visiting the remaining houses in the forest fringe villages over the next weekend and plan to extend the campaign to the North Wayanad and South Wayanad forest divisions,” said Arul Badusha, field officer of WCS.
According to FSI data there were 165 forest fires in the state during 2016. The highest number of fire outbreaks were recorded in Wayanad and Idukki districts (30 each) followed by Palakkad (28).
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SINGAPORE, Feb 9 People in Singapore are willing to cough up nearly 1 per cent of their annual income in order to guarantee the absence of transboundary haze for a year, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have found.
In total, they are willing to pay US$643.5 million (RM2.8 billion) a year large enough to make a substantive impact on the problem if used for land conservation and restoration, the researchers state in a paper published in Februarys issue of the journal,Environmental Research Letters.
The papers authors, Yuan Lin, Lahiru Wijedasa and Dr Ryan Chisholm, wrote: Our results indicate that Singaporeans experience sufficiently negative impacts of air pollution (in) their day-to-day life, or personal health during haze periods, that they are willing to trade off personal financial gain for improvements in air quality.
Transboundary haze is a long-standing problem in the South-east Asian region, largely caused by the drainage of carbon-rich peatland as well as companies and farmers in Indonesia using fire to clear land.
Singapore experienced its worst haze episode in 2015 from September to November, with the Pollutant Standards Index hitting hazardous levels.
Since then, Indonesia has renewed efforts to prevent fires, although a state of emergency was declared last month in Riau province over forest and land fires.
The economic impact of haze pollution here has been estimated using cost-benefit analysis before, but the researchers said that the figures could be an under-estimate because they exclude impacts such as non-hospitalisable health effects that are difficult to infer from economic data.
The 2015 haze episode was estimated to have cost Singapore S$700 million (RM2.19 billion) in losses.
The NUS researchers surveyed 390 people in public areas from November 2015 to February 2016 on their willingness to pay, should the Singapore Government be able to guarantee good air quality year-round.
The participants, from various age and income groups, were given options ranging from 0.05 per cent to 5 per cent of their annual income, after they indicated if they were willing to support such a haze mitigation fund.
The average persons willingness to pay was an estimated 0.97 per cent of his/her annual income.
However, about three in 10 respondents were unwilling to pay even the minimum option of 0.05 per cent of their annual income.
Wijedasa said that one of the solutions proposed for the haze problem is payments for ecosystem services.
This could take the form of richer nations aiding better land management and restoration by making regular payments.
Indonesia has estimated that it needs US$2.1 billion to help restore two million hectares of peatland in (the country). They have currently only received US$50 million from Norway and US$17 million from the United States.
“Could this shortfall be filled by Singapore (and other countries in the region)?
Tan Yi Han, who is not involved in the study and is co-founder of non-governmental organisation Peoples Movement to Stop Haze, said that the findings are helpful and should motivate the Singapore Government to spend on measures to prevent haze, such as a subsidy on certified sustainable palm oil, as well as aid to support peat restoration and protection efforts in Indonesia.
His organisations survey last year found that more than nine in 10 respondents were willing to pay more for certified sustainable products to help mitigate the haze, Tan said.
Most were willing to pay 5 to 10 per cent more.
Consumers game to chip in to avoid any haze include Steven Lim, who is in his 40s and self-employed. How much he is willing to contribute would depend on the amount needed to make an impact.
Maybe S$10? Multiplied by many individuals, it would be a lot, Lim said, preferring that the money goes to the Indonesian government.
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/money/article/singaporeans-willing-to-fork-out-1pc-of-income-to-ensure-no-more-haze#sthash.CRhWHQHj.dpuf
El capitán del primer batallón de la Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME), Emilio Arias, ha descrito como “dantescos” los efectos del incendio forestal en el paraje natural de la Sierra de Gata (Cáceres), aunque ha sido optimista en cuanto a su extinción al darse una situación “bastante favorable” en estos momentos. Fotogalería ALCALDE 11 Fotos La Sierra de Gata, tras el incendio “El incendio se dio por estabilizado y ahora mismo sólo hay pequeños focos que se reactivan por lo que la situación es bastante adecuada para intentar extinguir el fuego”, ha explicado Arias en una entrevista en COPE. Arias ha descrito como “dantesco” el efecto del fuego en una zona “donde el terreno era precioso”. El mando único del Plan Director del Infoex decidía este lunes mantener activo el Nivel 2 de peligrosidad en el incendio de Sierra de Gata ante las previsiones de viento y altas temperaturas. Las mismas predicciones indican que habrá una mejoría a partir de las primeras horas de la noche del lunes, según ha informado la Junta de Extremadura. Más de 200 efectivos se mantienen en la zona. Intentar llegar a la normalidad es “un tanto difícil”, y que ahora hay que hacer valoraciones de los daños El incendio declarado el pasado jueves ha arrasado unas 7.500 hectáreas de alto valor agrícola, ambiental y paisajístico, de ahí que el Gobierno regional haya iniciado ya la evaluación de los daños y comenzado a preparar la recuperación de la zona. El director general de Medio Ambiente, Pedro Muñoz, ha afirmado que el incendio ha causado un “desastre” desde el punto de vista medioambiental ya que ha arrasado miles de hectáreas de pinar, olivar y pastos, además de haber producido cuantiosos daños materiales en algunas poblaciones. La asociación conservacionista SEO/Birdlife ha denunciado que el incendio afectó gravemente a especies amenazadas y a espacios protegidos de la Red Natura 2000, incluidos robledales, madroñales y castañares centenarios. Todo el área afectada es una zona ornitólogica de interés mundial. Por su parte, el alcalde de la localidad cacereña de Hoyos, Óscar Antúnez, ha alabado la participación ciudadana en el municipio para ayudar a los operarios del plan Infoex como “lo bonito dentro de la tragedia” y ha añadido que el “sentir general” de los ciudadanos de Sierra de Gata es de “frustración e indignación” tras el incendio forestal. El alcalde ha señalado que ha podido hablar con los vecinos de la localidad y que los “más afectados” son los que han perdido fincas o casas de campo, sobre todo una familia que ha perdido su domicilio de vacaciones habitual, que era una casa “recién reformada”. Asimismo, Óscar Antúnez ha indicado que intentar llegar a la normalidad es “un tanto difícil”, y que ahora hay que hacer valoraciones de los daños, tanto la Mancomunidad de Municipios de Sierra de Gata como la Junta de Extremadura, para ver qué ayudas se pueden proporcionar y de qué modo, además de cuáles serán los medios disponibles. Por último, el primer edil de Hoyos ha explicado que los vecinos, “más allá de la lamentación”, deben intentar hacer “una vida normal”, aunque ha considerado que es muy difícil “dado el paisaje que tenemos”, ya que casi el 90% del término municipal está calcinado, ha indicado.
Ver más en: http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/2532392/0/fuego/gata/dantesco/#xtor=AD-15&xts=467263
