Presidential Decree on Restructuring the responsibilities of the
Federal Forest Service of Russia including the Forest Fire Protection Service
In a move to restructure the federal government's executive branch, President Vladimir
Putin has eliminated the State Committees for Forestry and for Environmental Protection
along with several others. The environmental and forestry functions were transferred to
the Ministry on Natural Resources. The decree was signed on Friday 19 May 2000 and made
public over the weekend. It triggered immediate public response.
As more details will be available on the restructuring of the Federal Forest Service and
the Aerial Forest Fire Protection Service Avialesookhrana the GFMC will continue to
provide update information on new developments. Avialesookhrana is responsible for
aerial forest fire protection on the largest contiguous forest of the world.
Fire News from Irkutsk Oblast
A forest fire in Irkutsk Oblast approached a nuclear storage
facility, NTV reported on 20 May 2000. According to the station, the fire came near the
Radon company, which stores radioactive substances in special concrete bunkers. The
station reported that there is a shortage of personnel and equipment, particularly
telecommunications equipment, to fight the forest fires. Authorities reported earlier in
the month that the situation was critical in eastern Irkutsk, where the number of fires
doubled in one week.
The Aerial Forest
Fire Protection Service Avialesookhrana of the Federal Forest Service of
Russia reports the state of fire in the 2000 fire season to the GFMC. The latest report is
from 19 May 2000:
Up to 18 May 2000 a total of 5,425 fires occurred in the forests under the control of the
Federal Forest Service of Russia and burning a total of 306,717 ha of forest and 110,417
ha non forest areas (inside forest lands).
During the day of 17 May 2000 a total of 105 fires were burning and affected 6,900 ha
forest and non forest land.
The regions with the highest fire activity were:
Buriateia, Chita and Irkutsk
There were 38 big fires (16 of them were controlled the same day).
Selected fire occurrence maps are prepared daily by the Russian GFMC correspondent Dr. Anatoly Sukhinin, Fire Laboratory of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Karsnoyarsk. The maps are produced on the base of satellite data (classification by the NOAA AVHRR). They show the fire locations (by latitude and longitude) and the area affected by fire (red signature, size in ha). The red arrow at each fire location points to the nearest populated place. Today, the following images are available for 23 May 2000:
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Fig.1. Map legend |
Fig.2. Altaiski (Altai) Krai | Fig.3. Amurskaia (Amur) Oblast |
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Fig.4. Amurskaia (Amur) Oblast |
Fig.5. Amurskaia (Amur) Oblast | Fig.6. Buryatia Republic |
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Fig.7. Novosibirskaia (Novosibirsk) Oblast |
Fig.8. Novosibirskaia (Novosibirsk) Oblast | Fig.9. Tomskaia (Tomsk) Oblast |
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Fig.10. Tuva Republic |
Fig.11. Amurskaya Oblast burned area map (10 March to 10 May 2000) | Fig.12.Amurskaya Oblast burned area map (10 March to 10 May 2000) |
For more details on fire in the Russian Federation, Mongolia and China: See IFFN Country Notes. Scientific details on fire in the Russian Federation are provided by the Fire Research Campaign Asia-North (FIRESCAN) report.
Bibliography on fire in ecosystems of boreal Eurasia:
One of the results of the first international fire science conference in the
Russian Federation (1993) was the publication of a monograph on fire in boreal Eurasia,
including some selected contributions on boreal North America. The literature cited in the
monograph contains numerous publications which in many cases are not easily accessible. To
facilitate literature search the bibliographical sources are provided by topic (chapter).
Goldammer, J.G. and V.V.Furyaev. 1996. Fire
in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 390 p.