Forest fire burns more than 700 hectares in La Tigra reserve
Forest fire burns more than 700 hectares in La Tigra reserve
07 April 2018
Published by https://www.devdiscourse.com/
HONDURAS -Some 770.17 hectares of the buffer zones of the La Tigra National Park were affected by the most devastating forest fire registered during the year, in the Central District, according to evaluations of the La Tigra Foundation (Amitigra), together with the Institute of Forest Conservation (ICF).
The fire started from Sunday and continued until Tuesday evening. The report of the damages was delivered to the authorities of the National Committee of Forestry Protection (Conaprofor) for its respective revision.
Preliminary assessments of the damaged areas detail that in the Corralitos village region, near the boundary with El Carpintero village, around 770.17 hectares of forest were damaged, in the La Tigra buffer zone. This sector is also part of the protected reserve, and although it does not correspond to the nucleus, its destruction has serious consequences for the local ecosystem.
The executive director of La Tigra National Park, Carlos Espinal, said that “the report of the preliminary area affected by the Corralitos fire, is 770.17 hectares, is the polygon that we have raised in our report, the information is referenced with the resources stored in the field, the validation of Conaprofor is pending “, as per La Tribuna.
According to the information handled by the authorities of the Fire Department, the event began last Sunday, in the afternoon hours, and subsequently, other fires were reported in the sector of La Paisana and Cofradía, of a lesser degree of affectation in relation to the extension of damage.
The ICF crews, the Fire Department, the Armed Forces Ecosystem Protection Command (FF AA) C-9 and the Amitigra resources guard contributed to the works to combat the fire in Corralitos.
Altogether, approximately 100 people joined forces to put out the fire. In addition, about 80 people finished liquidating the flames, on Tuesday, at around 8:00 in the evening.
The latest statistics from the ICF report 367 fires nationwide, and 118 occurred in the Central District, where the largest number of fires occurs every year. At present 2,822.23 hectares have been affected, as per La Tribuna.
The La Tigra National Park was the first declared protected area, in 1980, and due to its diverse richness in flora and fauna, it is the most important natural area of the Central District. The extension of the biological reserve includes 24,040 hectares of the varied ecosystem since it has a mixed pine, broad-leaved and dry forest.
The mountainous buffer zone of La Tigra consists of about 16,000 hectares where 92 communities live. The core zone is close to 10,000 hectares of forest, where many tributaries are born that provide 100 percent water to the surrounding communities.
