Day: February 22, 2018

Forest Fire Forestry Global International

Combating forest fires

Published: February 22, 2018, 2:40 am On Opinion

BIJAYA RAJ PAUDYAL

Most of the forest fires in Nepal are human-induced and occur during the dry season, with around 89 percent of them occurring in March, April, and May. In one of the worst fires in recent memory, 49 people were killed and thousands of hectares of forest land was damaged in the summer of 2009. In 2016, 15 people were reported dead in forest fires. By May 2016, forest fires had destroyed 1.3 million hectares of forests.

In 2017, about 39,000 hectares of forest cover in inside protected areas, and public and community forests were reported to have been damaged by forest fires. Three houses and six cowsheds were affected too. A study report published in early 2017 showed that in total 18 out of 75 districts were found to be at high risk of forest fires.

Read more: https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/combating-forest-fires/

Photo By: @nickerson_c (https://www.facebook.com/BestofGainesville)

Forest Fire Forestry Global HAZE INDONESIA Regional RFMRC-SEA

Indonesia mobilizes to combat health-damaging forest fires

Indonesia mobilizes to combat health-damaging forest fires

The Associated Press

February 21, 2018 03:46 AM

Updated February 21, 2018 03:47 AM

JAKARTA, INDONESIA

Four Indonesian provinces have declared emergencies in anticipation of worsening forest fires that each year spread health-damaging haze across much of Southeast Asia.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said Wednesday that emergency alerts in Riau and South Sumatra provinces on the island of Sumatra and West and Central Kalimantan on Borneo will make it easier to mobilize fire-fighting operations and support from the central government.

The agency said satellites have detected 90 “hotspots” or fires across Indonesia, with the biggest numbers in West and Central Kalimantan. Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province, has been blanketed in smoke, it said.

Record Indonesian forest fires in 2015 spread haze across a swath of Southeast Asia and, according to a study by Harvard and Columbia universities, hastened 100,000 deaths.