Nigeria: NGO Warns Residents Against Bush Burning

2 January 2008

published by allafrica.com

Nigeria — Residents of the Federal Capital Territory have been warned against the danger associated with bush burning.

Speaking during an awarness campaign organised by a non-governmental organisation, ‘Fire Disaster Prevention and Safety Awareness Association, the president, Badanga Ahmed Lamidi, emphasised the need to launch a bush fire prevention squad in order to curb the incessant outbreak of fire disaster in the country.

Lamidi regretted the re-occurence of fire outbreak within the FCT despite seminars and workshops organised by related agencies to educate the people on the dangers association with bush burning, stressing that the agency had recorded several fire occurences since the beginning of the period.

He pointed out that the menance caused by bush burning to livelihood, environment, property and the ecosystem could not be overemphasised, adding that the objective of the campaign which he said, was being supported by the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) was to train local communities on strategies to prevent, manage and control fire disaster.

Lamidi said the association is working towards initiating a framework to promulgate by-laws on bush burning in all local councils in the country as well as co-operate with relevant stakeholders to map out strategies that would help stem the problem of bush burning all over Nigeria.

 Toba Forests Most Prone To Fires

25 January 2008

published by www.thejakartapost.com

Indonesia — The recurrence of forest fires in North Sumatra is posing a serious threat to a forest conservation program in Aek Nauli, Simalungun regency. The protected Aek Nauli conservation forest near the tourist resort area ofake Toba is prone to fires in the dry season, with more than 10 hectares of forest lost to fires annually.

To lessen the impact of future fires, pulp and paper mill PT Toba Pulp Lestari recently deployed its fire brigade with a fire engine and ambulance in a two-hour-long fire-fighting drill at the conservation forest.

Deputy head of the Aek Nauli sector of Toba Pulp’s social security and licensing division, Sangkan Tampubolon, said the drill was aimed at anticipating forest fires during the dry season this year. He said forest fire was a recurrent problem in the Aek Nauli conservation area, where the company retained 10,000 ha of conservation areas and 7,000 ha of industrial logging areas where it grew eucalyptus trees.

Sangkan told The Jakarta Post the Aek Nauli forest was prone to catching fire because it was full of dry and highly flammable leaves. He also said the fires were caused by people.

“Every dry season, residents living around the forest open up farmland by burning away the vegetation,” said Sangkan.

Head of North Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) Djati Wicaksono concurred and said forest fires occurred almost every year in the area. He said conservation forests around Lake Toba were more prone to fires than the province’s other forests.

“There are three protected forests around Lake Toba which often catch fire. They are in Paropo, Silalahi and Merek districts,” Djati told the Post. He said most of those engaged in forest conversion programs to make way for farmland were local residents, adding that his office had campaigned among local people to point out the risks of forest fires.

“We have repeatedly exhorted residents not to clear forest areas by setting fire to them, but (the requests) have fallen on deaf ears, as evident in the still-regular forest fires,” said Djati, adding his office had arranged a number of programs aimed at curbing forest fires.

Sangkan said authorities had arrested a number of people found burning forested areas and some of them had been prosecuted.

“Those who are caught red-handed burning forests will be arrested and dealt with legally regardless of their background and motives,” said Sangkan. He added the company would also impose sanctions against employees who were aware of forest fires but failed to act quickly or report them.

“We will reprimand them and considering terminating their employment,” said Sangkan.

Rat-chasing juveniles arrested for setting fire to bush

5 January 2008

published by www.myjoyonline.com

Ghana — A group of juveniles, said to be on a rat-hunting expedition, has been arrested in Ho, for allegedly causing a raging bush fire on the Kabakaba Hills.

Officials of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) said the children (names withheld) were all primary school pupils, with the exception of one, who is in the Junior High School. They are between 11 and 15 years.

They were said to be using their time during the Christmas holidays for hunting when one of them, after chasing a rat which ran into a hole, set fire to the bush after a futile attempt to smoke out the rat from its hideout.

The acting Fire Officer for Ho, Mr Sakutey Addo, told newsmen that a congregation of the Global Evangelical Church on the Kabakaba Hill felt threatened by the fire and telephoned the service for an intervention.

He said on their way to the spot, the firemen discovered that one of the boys had been arrested by some concerned citizens of the town who handed him over to the officials. The boy later helped to trace the other accomplices who were also arrested.

One of the boys disclosed that they went for a hoe at the residence of the grandmother of a peer and when they were returning, they saw a hole suspected to be the burrow of a rat.

He said they dug it aggressively to no avail, adding that in the process one of them, now on the run, set fire and fanned it to force out the rat but the fire engulfed a wider area in the bush and spread into the village.

The Volta Regional Pubic Relations Officer of the GNFS, Mr Joy Agbleze, said the children would be handed over to the police for the necessary action.

He expressed regret that the children had set a precedent for fire outbreaks in the Ho Municipality and other parts of the region in the ensuing harmattan season and warned communities to step up vigilance to curb the annual menace of bush fires to the environment.

Mr Agbleze urged parents to exercise greater control over their children during the holidays in order to enable them to spend more time on their studies than undertaking such painful expeditions.

Who pays for wildfires?

12 January 2008

published by www.helenair.com

Helena, MT, USA — Even as a rare January wildfire charred thousand of acres near Billings, a group of lawmakers wrangled the hot-button issue of how Montana pays for wildfires, who pays and how government might regulate future building in fire-prone areas.

Rep. Bill Wilson, D-Great Falls, who leads part of the Fire Suppression Interim Committee, said during a break in Friday’s meeting that he hopes the panel will craft a whole new branch of law dealing exclusively with firefighting and home-building in wooded, rural areas.

“We as a state need to get more involved in crafting some solutions,” he said.

Montana’s 2007 fire season cost roughly $40 million, filled many cities with smoke for weeks and prompted an emergency special session of the Montana Legislature in September to allocate $82 million to cover firefighting costs until this July.

But finding ways of dealing with fires — particularly fires threatening homes — will be difficult. Some solutions, like outlawing homebuilding in the most fire-dangerous places, are politically impossible, Wilson said, even if they might, in certain situations, be reasonable.

A series of speakers outlined some of the problems: Montana has no law requiring people who live in the woods to keep their homes and property in a condition that might resist an approaching wildfire. The state assesses a modest $45-per-year fee to people who live in forested areas for wildfire protection. Such a sum is so small, some speakers said, it amounts to almost a complete shift of the burden of wildfire protection from the people who actually live in the woods to the majority of taxpayers who do not.

“Why should I pay? Why should my grandmother in a rest home pay?” asked Tom Futral, a Great Falls businessman who sells home fire protection kits for about $5,000. Futral hinted at another element to the dilemma: Many of the homes firefighters work to save are second homes or fancy cabins.

Futral called such homes part of a “lavish lifestyle” state taxpayers are subsidizing.

Local governments have three ways of potentially guiding growth in wooded areas, according to documents submitted by Harold Blattie, executive director of the Montana Association of Counties. Regulations for subdivisions give some control over how growth occurs. Zoning is another option and, finally, counties can adopt building codes.

But all of those existing rules have problems. Once a subdivision is adopted, the county has no more control over building in subdivision.

Zoning, said Mary Sexton, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation which oversees state firefighting, is a “non-starter.” In almost all counties, it’s very difficult for commissioners to impose county-wide zoning.

Blattie and his group proposed a new kind of law just for fire-prone areas that would be similar to the way governments control building in floodplains. His idea is to allow local governments to identify the so-called “wildland urban interface” and formulate rules for building in the area. Counties would be able to enforce the rules.

State Forester Bob Harrington said he’d like to see some kind of enforceable regulation, not just recommendations to homeowners.

Patty Gude of Headwaters Economics, a research firm in Bozeman, presented a study to the committee showing that, if current building trends continue, Montana can expect to see more than 86,000 homes in fire-prone sprawl by 2025, compared with more than 55,000 now.

Glenn Oppel, government affairs director for the Montana Association of Realtors, said his group favored a plan in which the state wouldn’t enforce building practices, only make recommendations. Oppel also questioned whether homes themselves were driving up firefighting costs.

Several committee members questioned Oppel’s suggestion.

“What we’re looking at is how we’re spending our resources,” said Sen. Carol Williams, D-Missoula. One of the biggest drives behind the state’s growing wildfire bill is the cost of defending homes embedded in the woods.

Wilson said she’d like to see the insurance industry also get involved in the discussion. Sen. Rick Laible, R-Darby, said that perhaps banks, which loan money to build homes in fire-prone areas, might also be part of the mix.

The committee is in the very early stages of crafting potential bills for the 2009 Legislature.

Domestic wine sales fall

11 January 2008

published by www.abc.net.au

New figures show domestic wine sales to the end of November were down nearly nine per cent on the previous year, to 34 million litres.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says part of the reason was a much smaller crush, down nearly half a million tonnes.

Damien Sparkes from the ABS says the level of imported wine has also risen dramatically, from around two million litres per month to six million.

He says the drought has played a part, but there were other problems.

“There were other issues, particularly in the cooler climate areas of the Yarra Valley in Victoria and some of the regions in the Hunter Valley, where frost took away some of the fruit,” he says.

“There was always the concern with things like fungus and wine grape infection and also, at the time of picking, there were a number of bushfires around the country and that in itself, the smoke and the taste of the smoke, tainted the fruit”