87,000 ha of forests face high risk of fire in dry season

Binh Dinh province is struggling with widespread severe heat waves. According to the national and provincial centers for hydro-meteorological forecasting, in the coming time, the situation will be worsening. Binh Dinh will continue to face frequent high temperatures resulting in prolonged hot weather and drought.  Wildfire threats were warned at level IV (danger) and V (extreme danger).

Recently, many areas of planted and protective forests in the districts of Tay Son, Vinh Thanh and An Nhon town have died due to scorching heat. The reason is that less rainfall and prolonged hot weather resulting in water shortage in many forests.

Besides, the local people have increasingly expanded the area of planted forests; as result newly-planted forests died in the dry season which is inevitable. The situation not only caused damages for the local people but also posed a high risk of wildfires. Because, the dead forests can spark wildfires at any time if the people are careless. In consequence, the fire will spread to the nearby forests.

The Forest Protection Sub-department of Binh Dinh province said that since the beginning of this year two wildfires have occurred in Hoai Nhon town and Phu Cat district, destroying 2.03 hectares of forests. These wildfires was caused mainly by the carelessness in using fires such as burning beehives, clearing land, treating vegetation after exploitation and burning incenses and paper offerings.

In the face of prolonged hot weather, the local authorities are aware that the risk of wildfires in the province is high with 87,000 hectares in danger, mostly planted forests.

Anticipating the high wildfire risk as hot weather is prolonged, at the beginning of this year, Binh Dinh province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development advised the provincial People's Committee of Binh Dinh to issue documents directing forest prevention and wildfire fighting in 2021. Accordingly, the Forest Protection sub-department of Binh Dinh and localities, forest owners took measures to protect forests and prevent wildfires.

The Management Board for Protection Forest of Phu My district which was assigned to manage 12,000 hectares of watershed and coastal casuarinas forests, soon reinforced the steering committee for forest fire prevention and fighting and 57 community groups contracted for protecting forests in order to improve the protection of forests.  This unit regularly patrols and protects the forests, especially the coastal casuarinas forests.  If a casuarinas forest catches fires it will expand very quickly because with small leaves and dense branches, casuarinas trees are easy to spark wildfires.

Other localities in the province are focusing on implementing forest protection and wildfire fighting. The People's Comitteee of Hoai Nhon town directed its Forest Protection Division in collaboration with communes, wards and forest owners in the area to maintain a patrol force controlling forests with high fire risk in order to timely prevent illegal activities that might lead to forest fires and handle violations.

According to TranVan Phuc, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Dinh province, the forest protection and wildfire fighting has been significantly enhanced. Steering committees at the district and commune levels have been established and put into operation effectively. The role of forest owners is improved step by step. Public awareness on wildfire prevention has changed positively. "Experience of directing, operating, inspecting and controlling wildfires of authorities at all levels and forest protection force has been gradually improved. The" Four-on-the-spot motto" in fighting wildfires has been grasped throughly and proved effectiveness. Wildfires were detected and controlled soon, limiting damage to natural resources in forests", Phuc shared.

However, forest protection and fire fighting in Binh Dinh is still a matter of some concerns.  Currently, up to nearly 87,000 hectares are at risk of forest fires. While the province's specialized forces are incapable to control wildfires on such a large area. Particularly, the forest ranger force of Binh Dinh is considered as a core team for forest protection and wildfire fighting but the force is thin and scattered. In addition, there are very few infrastructures for forest protection and wildfire fighting,  it mainly relys on trails, rivers and streams without any green runway of vegetation and reservoir to serve wildfire fighting as regulated by law.

“Means and equipment for wildfire prevention and fighting in the province are still insufficient, unable to meet the actual requirements. Currently, wind blowers, shoulder pumps, saws, water containers are damaged and downgraded when used for decades. The quantity is not enough to meet demand. Therefore, when wildfires spread widely it will be hard to control them", Director of Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Developmen, Tran Van Phuc said.