After months of devastating fires in Mexico and Central America, seasonal rains and fire fighters have doused most of the flames. Governments and conservationists are now assessing the damage and considering how future conflagrations can be prevented. According to government ministries, the early June scorched-earth totals were:
Both government officials and conservationists blame the vast majority of the out-of-control fires on farmers, who customarily burn their fields at the end of the dry season to clear land for new crops or pastureland. Tradition, not science, holds that crops grow well in the ashes. The El Niño weather pattern caused a particularly prolonged dry season this year, so wind-blown sparks from farmers' fires easily ignited parched brush, and flames quickly spread.
"Farmers don't have the information about how to make firebreaks around their parcels," explains Osvaldo Munguia of the Honduran conservation group MOPAWI. "They don't understand the value of the resources lost in fires, because they do not have access to a forest's economic benefits."
Although the farmers' practices are well known and governments were aware of the drought's dangers, they were slow to grasp the extent of the destruction and slower to respond. In May, Honduras was forced to close busy airports for days at a time, because billowing smoke so clouded visibility. "It was the resulting economic losses that convinced the government they needed to act," claims Munguia.
Government intervention was "very weak" in Nicaragua, according to Pedro Felix Obregon of the grassroots group, Jovenes Ambientalistas. He believes there was a "criminal hand in most, if not all, the fires." Land squatters, whom the government is trying to evict from the northern protected area called Bosawas, "have said that they prefer to burn everything rather than leave." Some 10,000 acres in Bosawas were incinerated.
Hans Herrmann, executive director of Pronatura, a conservation group in Mexico, says that although the Government did not do enough in terms of prevention, he feels "proud of what was accomplished with scarce resources." He notes that the most persistent fires are in Las Chimalapas, one of Mexico's most biodiversity-rich cloud forests before its rare flora and fauna were engulfed in flames.
When asked what measures they would take to prevent future catastrophes, government officials listed training of fire-fighting brigades, prevention education, improved detection, and better coordination among citizens' groups and government agencies.
Oscar Rojas of Guatemala's Defensores de la Naturaleza, reports that his organization is already talking with the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) to see how they can help prepare for next year. Meanwhile, the Guatemala government is determined to "maintain the integrity of protected areas after the fires are under control," according to CONAP's Juan Jose Meza.
In Nicaragua, the government needs to take measures to "change the culture, create awareness, and confront the activities" that cause fires, says Carlos Rivas, assistant to the minister of natural resources. Conservationist Obregon concurs that a well-orchestrated and nationwide effort is needed. "Modest and isolated actions," he concludes, "will be carried away on tongues of fire."
CONTACTS: In Nicaragua, Ministerio del Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, tel
505/263-1271, fax 505/263-1274; Jovenes Ambientalistas, tel 505/260-0136,
fax 505/260-0136
This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Conservation Media Center,
based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille,
Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383;
Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr
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