Zimbabwe: Veld Fires Spell Doom for Zim

8 August 2006

published by allafrica.com

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Harare, Zimbabwe — The effects of veld fires on the environment may seem temporary but there are long-term impacts on bio-diversity that may be irreversible.

Despite several warnings from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Meteorological Services Department, many people are still starting destructive fires.

Environmentalists say a multi-sectoral approach is required if the country is to effectively curb veld fires.

Bush fires or uncontrolled blazes are the most widespread ecological disturbances in Zimbabwe and are most pronounced in winter and before the onset of the first rains when the forests would be dry and highly inflammable.

Reports say Zimbabwe lost nearly 11 million hectares of land in 2004 and more than 11 504 947 hectares last year.

Uncontrolled burning leads to a reduction in biodiversity, destruction of flora and fauna, reduction of soil fertility, increased erosion and soil compaction that increases surface run-off, thereby decreasing infiltration. All this reduces water needed to recharge ground water sources.

The clearance of basal cover accelerates soil erosion leading to the siltation of water bodies; this in turn translates to reduced water for livestock and irrigation.

So the effects of veld fires are cumulative and touch the entire biosphere.

Zimbabwe has so far lost a lot of property and wildlife that could have earned the country billions of dollars in foreign currency. The uncontrolled destruction of the biota comes at a time when the country is working towards the improvement of its export earnings.

Important commercial resources have been lost through veld fires. For example Manicaland province alone lost nearly $20 billion ($20 trillion old value) worth of timber to these fires.

These veld fires have also caused substantial damages to wildlife through the reduction of grazing land.

In most cases, people clearing land for the next cropping season usually start veld fires in communal areas. Farmers prefer to burn foliage in the evening but when they leave them untended, the evening breeze fans them to other areas.

In some instances, poachers start fires in order to drive animals in a certain direction. Some farmers, especially those in resettled and communal areas, smoke out bees using grass torches but fail to properly put out the fires.

Others start fires at bus terminuses to warm themselves but often board buses without dousing them and they spread across the grasslands.

Veld fires can also be ignited by burning cigarette stubs carelessly thrown out of moving vehicles by drivers or passengers.

Only in extreme cases are veld fires induced by natural factors like lightning.

Although the Government has put in place a number of strategies to handle incidents of veld fires, there is need to quickly implement the strategies.

In June, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism launched the National Fire Strategy that seeks to curb the upsurge in the number of veld fires that have resulted in massive environmental damage.

The strategy seeks to establish fire-fighting teams, from district to national levels. The teams would be co-ordinated by the Joint Operation Command that includes Government officials and officers from the uniformed forces.

Stakeholders say Government should establish Fire Protection Associations throughout the country to oversee the development and strengthening of Zimbabwe’s capability in dealing with cases of fire outbreaks.

Both commercial and communal farmers should also be tasked to form their own committees that would co-ordinate all the fire-fighting strategies in their areas, as well as investigate the causes of veld fires.

The strategy aims to raise awareness among Zimbabweans and it seeks to educate people on the dangers of veld fires and the consequences they might face if fires are left uncontrolled.

This would also mean further strengthening urban fire departments to enable the country to effectively deal with the unexpected fires.

Environmentalists say the lack of a co-ordinated approach to curb environmental abuse was aggravating thesituation.

Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers’ Association project co-ordinator Mr Shamiso Mtisi said the failure to effectively enforce environmental laws had rendered efforts to control environmental damage ineffective.

He called for the establishment of the Environmental Crimes Court to deal with issues of environment abuse so that crimes against the environment are treated in the same manner as other criminal cases.

The Forest Act of 1996 forbids people from burning, growing or standing vegetation on any land without prior notice to the occupants of all adjourning land and the police.

The Act further stipulates that in the event that one is found guilty in a court of law, the accused should be liable of either a fine or imprisonment.

Environmentalists, however, called for stiffer penalties and custodial terms for people who start fires saying the fines and terms proffered arsonists were too lenient.

In spite of these sentences, both the ecosystem and people’s lives and property remain in danger hence the need for more awareness campaigns.

It is only through the introduction of studies in fire management in all sectors of the education system that Zimbabwe could help inculcate a sense of environment management at a tender age.

An increased participation of the education sector in mainstreaming fire management in schools and college curriculums would help develop a sense of responsibility in all citizens.

Plans are already underway to incorporate environmental issues in schools and college curriculums.

All members of the community should ensure that they preserve the environment. It is important that traditional leaders like chiefs and headmen take leading roles in conserving the environment.

Increased participation of the private sector in the management of veld fires countrywide and protecting the forests from fire can only be achieved when adequate funds are made available for efficient and effective management activities.

Recently, the Forestry Company of Zimbabwe injected $5 million ($5 billion old value) towards the development of infrastructure to combat veld fires in Matabeleland North Province, one of the areas that has been severely devastated by uncontrolled fires. The province lost more than 800 000 hectares of gazetted state forests last year alone.

According to statistics, forestry contributes more than three percent of Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product.

Not only have fires left trails of destruction, but also in some cases they have been fatal. In October last year seven children were burnt to death in Insiza near Bulawayo.

The kids, who were coming from school, were cornered by a raging blaze and climbed trees but were overwhelmed by the flames and smoke, and plunged to their death in the hellish fire. Another girl from Dzivaresekwa was burnt to death when a bush fire engulfed her, as she was searching for firewood in a nearby bush.

In September of the same year, smoke from a veld fire blocked traffic near the 100-km peg along the Marondera-Mutare Highway causing a three-vehicle pile up accident.

Closely related to these, is the case of 10 families from Kasu village under Chief Tangwena in Nyanga who were left homeless after veld fires encroached on their homesteads.

It is regrettable that a simple act of carelessness like lighting a cigarette can be so destructive to the environment.

Environmentalists say farmers should be encouraged to take leading roles in protecting their farmlands by making sure they construct fireguards around their properties.

Fireguards are belts of bare ground of not less than nine meters that prevent fires from crossing into other areas.

The absence of a clear national policy has also further constrained conservationefforts.

Environmentalists have attributed the increased incidence of uncontrolled fires to lack of environmental awareness and effective law enforcement.

Veld fires are a matter of concern that require effective policies and lasting solutions to prevent and combat them.

Policies need to be clear about individual responsibility and co-ordinated roles ofresponsibilities.

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Grouse moors: Under fire

14 August 2006

published by news.independent.co.uk

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England, UK — Bang! The grouse shooting season has begun. But all is not well on the moorlands of England and an entire eco-system is under threat. Who is toblame?

Yesterday, grouse moors across Britain will have echoed to the repeated crack of expensive shotguns, barking dogs, and the throaty growl of Range Rovers slowly making their way up hill. Yesterday was the Glorious Twelfth, the most significant day in the field sports calendar, the start of this year’s grouse shooting season.

Once, the first of the small plump birds shot on the Twelfth were flown down to the Savoy in London, commanding a high price at the table. And they still do – moor owners will earn £150 for every pair shot down, and many, many thousands of grouse will be shot this weekend. But this sport of the Victorian aristocracy and their successors, the 21st-century’s corporate executives, is finding it increasingly difficult to prosper.

This jittery little game bird is the cause of a major but barely-reported battle over the conservation of vast areas of northern England – the desolate moors and peat bogs of the North Pennines, the Peak District and Northumberland, which played host yesterday to the start of the shooting season. It is a dispute over the future of a sport now deeply entrenched in the economies and traditions of northern England, and the survival of hundreds of square miles of uplands that protect rare birds and unique flowers. Even the safety of nearby towns and cities such as York is at stake – these moors ought to be holding back thousands of tonnes of rainwater each winter, but increasingly, they can’t.

English Nature, the official conservation agency, has accused moor owners of burning heather too frequently, of allowing sheep to over-graze and of cutting tens of thousands of kilometres of trenches to drain the bogs. And, like many other conservation disputes, this one is easily explored on the ground, on the blanket bogs and heathlands of the North Pennines, where the hills are a mottled camouflage of khaki, dun browns and occasional pink flashes of flowering heather.

Lying on the eastern flank of the Pennines, the high moors close to the market towns of Teesdale – towns such as Barnard Castle, Stanhope and Middleton-in-Teesdale – have been famous for generations for their shooting. And taking a short stroll along the wind-buffeted roads which cross those moors, one might easily come across the source of much of the trouble – a freshly cut trench, known as a “grip”, and the often vast tracts of hillside burnt clear of heather. One nearby moor is typical. A grip has been recently cut alongside a new track leading off the road on to the hill, and the sharply-edged trench reveals a deep layer of moist, earthy peat, a dark chocolate brown in colour. But already, the moisture is leaching out.

Large pads of once sodden moss – the normally sponge-like sphagnum which is a building block of peat – are now parched and shrunken, as they are starved of water by the nearby grips. Instead of a once-typical squelching feel where your feet disappear into the ground, the peat is now taut and dry, notes Tim Melling, a naturalist with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “This is a sphagnum moss. It will die now, because it’s being starved of water, and the cotton grass here is struggling too – I’ve not seen any flower heads yet,” he adds. “It’s the last dying breath of a blanket bog really. It doesn’t feel like blanket bog when you walk on it, does it? Not seeing many birds, are we?”

Across the hills are a series of uniformly shaped, cinder grey areas of recently-burnt heather – some stretching up to a kilometre across. They are burnt to create a new, sweeter growth of heather for both grouse and, often, the “fresh bite” needed for grazing sheep. “I think that’s enormous,” says Melling, pointing at one example. “That’s a fire bigger than the couple of hectares which English Nature prefer – they know that small areas of burning create what these moors need: a really diverse mosaic of different types of plants and insect-life.”

His attention is caught by the markedly even height of the heather across the surrounding hills. Grouse moor owners would regard this as ideal – the perfect breeding conditions for red grouse. Melling dismissively sees this as “grouse farming” – a process, which at its worst, is akin to the sterile-seeming cereal fields that stretch to the horizon in east Anglia.

“The uniformity here is just staggering. If you end up burning too frequently, you end up with this shaved appearance. It looks like a mowed lawn, doesn’t it? And in five years’ time, you just won’t see any cross-leafed heath at all, particularly after they’ve burnt it. It makes my blood boil. This is supposed to have the highest level of protection. Ask English Nature if they’ve consented to this.”

A senior species protection officer for the RSPB, Melling is a trim, sandy-haired, 40-something ecologist who has the infectious energy of a David Bellamy or a Bill Oddie. He is also a veteran of moorland conservation, and the lead author of one of the RSPB’s most contentious recent reports, Peak Malpractice. Published earlier this year, it alleged there is a direct correlation between bad moorland management and the illegal, systematic persecution of rare birds of prey in some parts of the Peak District National Park.

“On these grouse moors, they like to have shortish heather where the young red grouse chicks can hatch and forage,” Melling says. “But if we had the full mosaic of proper moorland habitat, you would have all those birds – maybe not in the same numbers, but it would be a more sustainable eco-system. This is what you would really want.”

His expert eye can pick out some of the tiny plants sheltering under the heather and cotton grass, such as the minute bright red nodes of a scarce moss, or the curled fronds of a sundew, one of Britain’s only native insect-eating plants, with a tiny, trapped midgie being slowly digested. “That will be dead next year. Because the peat here is nutrient poor, it needs the insects – they’re like its cheese and biscuits.”

Nearby, exposed now by burnt heather, he spots the leaves of a lesser twayblade. “That’s one of Britain’s smallest orchids but it can’t survive in these exposed conditions. This is quite a rare plant. I haven’t seen one myself for about five years. This is just awful. Because they’ve put in the drainage ditch, this is likely to get much, much drier. This is a really nasty blanket bog problem.”

This stretch of grouse moor is deep inside a large and significant SSSI (Special Site of Scientific Interest), catchily referred to as Bollihope, Pikestone, Eggleston and Woodland Fells. It has earned the highest types of environmental protection for 10 scarce “red-listed” birds, such as merlin, teal, black grouse, golden plover and redshank, as well as its dry heath and its boggy moorland. And it is just one of a sprawling network of specially-designated sites which are part of the North Pennines Special Protected Area that links moors from the former steel town of Consett in County Durham in the north east through to Skipton in the south.

English Nature, the Government’s main conservation agency, has ruled that this SSSI – like a majority of the peat bogs and moorland heaths on the surrounding Pennine hills, is in very poor condition indeed. These sites are of global importance, offering a unique type of high moorland bog that are home to a particular combination of wading birds, iconic and scarce birds of prey such as the hen harrier and the merlin, or the minute orchids and lichens that Melling identified.

Nearly nine tenths of it is officially described as being in “unfavourable” or “unfavourable declining” condition. It has been heavily over-grazed by sheep, over-burnt by gamekeepers, and dried out by repeated drainage. And this site is just one of hundreds that are in trouble.

The UK prides itself as being one of the EU’s greenest member states, yet the problems posed by grouse moors threaten to derail attempts to restore the country’s SSSIs to an acceptable standard. And that failure could be expensive. The Treasury could effectively “fine” the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if not enough of them are brought back to acceptable condition within the next four years. In 1998, Defra signed a deal with the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, to ensure that 95 per cent of England’s 4,118 SSSIs would be brought up to “favourable” condition by 2010. Like every Whitehall department, that “Public Service Agreement” or PSA is effectively a performance contract for Defra – one on which the Treasury can judge its effectiveness.

And these Special Sites of Scientific Interest cover more than 1m hectares of some of England’s finest and most-loved landscapes, from the saltwater marshes and dunes near Alnmouth on the Northumbrian coast to the River Itchen in Hampshire, and to the Devil’s Dyke chalk grasslands in Cambridgeshire. But, with less than four years to go, English Nature is still well short of hitting that target, with another 25 per cent of those 1m hectares still in an “unfavourable” state.

And the most widely-damaged types of all are the blanket bogs and upland heaths of northern England – chiefly grouse moors. Less than 60 per cent nationwide are in a good enough state. Across England, roughly 175,000 hectares of bog and moorland have been damaged – an area more than five times the size of the Isle of Wight.

The north east is the worst performing region in England, with only a half of its sites in target condition. According to English Nature, over 48,000 hectares of bog and upland heaths in the north east are in “unfavourable” condition – principally due to burning, overgrazing and drainage.

While in County Durham, the problem is particularly acute: less than one third of all the SSSIs in the Land of the Prince Bishops are in target condition, thanks chiefly to decades of inappropriate management of the moors. And using the Freedom of Information Act, The Independent on Sunday has discovered that more than £1.1m has been paid in the last year to local moor owners, sheep farmers and managers who control these SSSIs to improve their land.

There are several critical issues underpinning the concerns about the degradation of these peat bogs – climate change, flooding and water pollution. These bogs act like giant sponges so, as they get drained and dry, the rainwater they once captured runs off the moors instead, flooding downstream cities and towns and causing millions of pounds in damage and disruption. Dried-out peat also crumbles into the water being drained off by the grips. Experts at Durham University estimate that 15 tonnes of peat are being lost from every square kilometre of bog each year, running off into the rivers. Over the last 30 years, Northumbrian Water has calculated, the amount of discolouration and “turbidity” in the water has risen by a third. The water company now spends £4m each year treating water from the Pennines to make it suitable for drinking.

And, in one of those ironic twists straight out of Yes, Minister, these problems were originally caused by the Government. After the war, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries wanted to maximise meat production and believed draining the moors would promote sheep farming. Through to the 1970s, it paid grants of up to 70 per cent for moor owners to cut grips – creating hundreds of thousands of kilometres of these drains.

These hills have another, less savoury, reputation. In one area to the north of Bollihope where the moors are effectively(omega) “farmed” for grouse, the RSPB has recorded a cluster of cases where rare birds of prey and owls – birds known collectively as “raptors” – have been illegally shot, poisoned or had their nests destroyed. A dozen cases of “raptor persecution” have been confirmed or suspected over the past decade – including poisoned buzzards, illegal pole traps set for hen harriers, owls killed in traps and a cache of poison found. Indeed, the RSPB has recorded 56 “confirmed and probable” cases of raptor persecution on the moors within a 50km radius of Barnard Castle in Teesdale since 1995, grouped heavily around grouse moors.

These cases, argues the RSPB, are evidence of a culture of indifference, even hostility, towards wider environmental objectives among many grouse moor managers. “It’s outrageous that there’s zero tolerance of raptors on some of these estates,” says Julian Hughes, the society’s head of species conservation. “There’s no doubt that the right kind of grouse moor management, and a degree of legal predator control, can benefit birds such as curlews and lapwing, but there’s no place in the 21st century for this level of law-breaking.”

Sir Martin Doughty, the chairman of English Nature and its new successor agency, Natural England, which begins work this October, insists that he remains optimistic that his organisation will hit its PSA target by 2010. But to do so, English Nature faces a substantial challenge: to persuade grouse moor owners and sheep farmers to dramatically improve their management of the moors – abandoning their intensive burning traditions, cutting sheep numbers, blocking up the “grips” to allow bogs to re-emerge, and replacing the common heather loved by grouse with a richer, more diverse plant life.

Only two years ago, English Nature officials were privately worried there would be a stand-up fight with the shooting lobby over the state of the moors. But that emerging crisis was allayed last October when the agency agreed a compromise strategy with the influential and robustly-led Moorland Association, the moor owners’ organisation. Simon Bostock, the association’s chairman, speaks confidently of a “working partnership” with English Nature which will preserve “a viable working estate, as well as the livelihoods of those who live there, and the wildlife that thrives upon it”. But so far, only 13 moors have been signed up to the new agreements by English Nature – it needs to involve up to 150 to meet its targets.

One estate in County Durham is emerging as a model for the kind of pragmatic, open-minded and intelligent style which Sir Martin craves – one of the most famous shooting estates of all, Wemmergill near the Teesdale market town of Barnard Castle. It is here that John F Kennedy, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Charles and Edward VII have all shot.

Wemmergill straddles two moors which make up the Lune Forest SSSI, a site protected specially for its rich range of heathers, rare moorland plants such as spring gentian, and its dwarf shrubs, such as cloudberry and bilberry, as well as birds such as merlin, golden plover, dunlin and snipe. A key part of the North Pennines Special Protected Area, it is also an estate which encapsulates many of the historic problems facing grouse moors. Like most, it has suffered decades of benign neglect when maximising grouse numbers was the priority. Sheep were grazed at unsustainable levels. Roads, bridges and even the homes to the estate’s gamekeepers fell into disrepair.

But in January this year, the estate and its tenant farms were bought outright for £5.25m by a self-made pubs entrepreneur called Michael Cannon, 65, from the south west. Cannon had already, in 2004, spent £4m acquiring the shooting rights to the estate and since then has again opened his chequebook, spending £3m renovating the cottages, buildings and roads, hired two extra ‘keepers, and added a discrete helicopter landing pad.

At Cannon’s instigation, the estate is finalising what may become a landmark deal with English Nature, to agree an ecologically-sustainable system of heather burning, efforts to cut grouse numbers, a programme to block up the “grips” and renewed efforts to plant a wider range of indigenous shrubs and trees. He has hired naturalists to survey the estate, and produce new management plans.

Their negotiations are being closely observed. Last year, Wemmergill challenged English Nature’s decision to impose tough conditions on its heather burning regime by appealing against them to Margaret Beckett, the then Environment Secretary. But both sides are now talking amicably and if this deal works, it could help English Nature and the Moorland Association coax more sceptical owners into saving their own moors.

Richard Johnson, a lawyer and director of the estate’s management company, says Cannon “loves turning around things. In the same way he’s made his millions from acquiring run-down pub chains, making them very profitable, and selling them, he likes to modernise grouse moors. He gets a buzz out of doing things which people thought wasn’t possible.”

A remarkable map of Wemmergill underscores the scale of the task. It picks out every grip on the moors in light blue – all 67,000km of them – which create an intricate, tightly-packed mesh of ditches. John Barrett, one of English Nature’s senior officials in the north east, says Wemmergill exhibits classic signs of over-grazing by sheep, and over-burning.

“It’s not in a healthy state,” he says. “It’s all about balance when it comes to moorland management and it’s not about eliminating one particular habitat to the benefit of another. It’s getting the balance right which is critical.” Nonetheless, he remains optimistic about a “growing environmental awareness” among moor owners. “There’s a lot of new money being invested in grouse moors now and the people investing the money are doing it because they’ve a passion for grouse shooting, a passion for moors and a passion for other birds. It’s like your own back garden: you’ve invested money in it, you enjoy looking at it and you enjoying being in it.”

The Wemmergill people broadly agree. “Nobody can buy a grouse moor and expect it to wash its face. It’s impossible,” Johnson remarks, bluntly. “I think that there’s an acknowledgement by any moor owner that if you’re buying a SSSI, a Special Area of Conservation or a Special Protected Area, then there are restrictions. This is accepted at the outset and we work within the parameters of that. We’re an area of outstanding natural beauty as well. I don’t see it as a conflict.”

And John Pinkney, 34, is well-placed to judge results. A local man, he first began at Wemmergill aged 11 as a “beater”. He started working on the estate aged 16, and was promoted under Cannon’s ownership to become one of two head-keepers. “Gone are the days when we just go out and do what we want to do, and we’ve got to live with that,” he says. “We won’t get it our own way, so if we can sit down and talk to these folk and get some kind of compromise, we will achieve what we set out to achieve in a round-about fashion.”

Sir Martin Doughty will be pleased – and relieved – to hear it. The Chancellor’s clock isticking.

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Chine: un incendie ravage une forêt vierge au Tibet

17 August 2006

published by french.peopledaily.com.cn

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Tibet, Chine — Un incendie dévaste une forêt vierge de la Région autonome du Tibet en Chine du sud-ouest, n’ayant pas fait de victime, selon un officiel local mercredi.

L’incendie s’est déclaré à environ 14h50 mercredi dans une forêt située près du district de Bomi de la préfecture de Nyingchi. Les pompiers sont immédiatement intervenus, mais l’incendie s’est quand même étendu, a dit Gyaincain, le chef adjoint du corps des pompiers local.

L’absence de pluie, l’air sec et la température élevée ont contribué à l’extension des feux. Malgré les efforts des pompiers et de nombreux civils, l’incendie n’a toujours pas été éteint. Ils creusent actuellement des fossés et abattent des arbres pour circonscrire l’incendie.

Selon Gyaincain, on ne connaît pas encore la superficie de forêt brûlée.

Bomi est à 680 km à l’est de Lhasa, capitale du Tibet.

La cause de l’incendie n’est pas connue

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Finnish officials on visit to Russia to ascertain forest fire situation

24 august 2004

published by www.hs.fi

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Meteorological Institute to issue smoke warnings

Finland — A two-man team of Finnish fire experts is travelling to Vyborg on Wednesday to discuss the forest fire situation in the area with Russian officials.
Smoke from Russian forest fires near the Finnish border has brought the acrid smell of smoke and intermittent poor visibility mainly to southern parts of Finland.
“The purpose is to get a briefing on the present fire situation. Undoubtedly we will also discuss what benefits there might be in sending Finnish firefighting aid”, says one of the two officials, Timo Forsman, fire chief of the eastern district of the South Karelia Rescue Department.

One of the aims of the discussions is to find out more about reported fires at landfills, and about what kinds of hazardous chemicals might be released from them. The plan is to visit the Vyborg landfill, where a fire is reportedly going on.
“Naturally we also want to express our concern about the harm that the fires cause in Finland”, says Harry Frelander, an official at the Rescue Department of the Ministry of the Interior.
On Tuesday, Minister of the Interior Kari Rajamäki (SDP) said in a press conference in Turku that he is preparing to meet Russia’s Minister for Emergencies Sergei Shoigu in Moscow soon. The aim of the meeting is to improve communications and cooperation between officials of the two countries.
Rajamäki also said that it was agreed in discussions of three ministries on Tuesday that the Finnish Meteorological Institute should inform the public more efficiently about the possible appearance of smoke. Rajamäki said that this means that public smoke warnings would be issued, when and where necessary.

There was less smoke from the Russian fires in the air of Southern Finland on Tuesday than on Monday afternoon, when Helsinki was engulfed by a thick cloud. Air pollution briefly rose to levels that predominate in Mexico City, which is considered to be one of the world’s most polluted cities.
More smoke is expected in the coming days, carried by winds blowing from the east. Health officials recommend staying indoors when smoke levels are high.

Although the smoke from forest fires in Russia has caused both physical and psychological irritation among residents of the south of Finland, health officials point out that wood fires in fireplaces and saunas cause more exposure to smoke particles in the long run than do forest fires.
Speaking at a seminar on air protection in the southeastern city of Lappeenranta on Tuesday, Dr. Raimo O. Salonen of the National Public Health Institute said that transport and the burning of wood are the worst sources of small solid particles in the air.
The Ministry of the Environment has drafted a proposal calling for emission limits for new wood-burning stoves and fireplaces.
More public information is also planned on the right methods of burning wood, which can greatly decrease the amount of pollutants.
Finland has an estimated 2.2 million wood-burning stoves for heating, and 1.5 million sauna stoves and water heaters that use wood as their fuel.

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