Abandonment of the field, worse for fires than confinement



The decrease in activity in mountains and forests during the health emergency due to COVID-19, being "only a few weeks off" is not as decisive "as rural abandonment" in the face of the forest fire season, the Dean explains to EFEverde of the Official College of Forest Engineers, Eduardo Rojas.

Prevention measures are developed "in the long term", according to Rojas, so the weeks of confinement do not translate "into an immediate effect of causing large fires" when there is previous work.

Regarding prevention measures, this expert underlines that "they are being carried out", although he warns that "some regions may fear suffering a new crisis in the return to economic normalization and that this affects professional dedication in mountains or forests".

"If the great fires were strictly forest-based, now we see that they also occur in areas of intensive agriculture and abandoned agricultural land," says Rojas, who encourages "betting on more powerful policies to recover resources."

This year, with a surplus in relation to the rains, in his opinion, "shortens the summer period and may reduce the risk of fires", although he warns that we are facing other challenges such as "burning stubble or uncontrolled fire in the agrarian activity ", as has happened in previous years in Spain.

In this sense, the coordinator of Ecologists in Action, Theo Oberhuber, points out to EFEverde that during this period of confinement, "the brigades have been working on fire matters", but some of the preventive measures "may have stopped" during the closure for this epidemic.

The lack of maintenance that has been possible in some environments, for Oberthuber "is not a problem, because indigenous species must be preserved" and he defends that the bushes "are necessary for the forest".

Furthermore, Oberhuber states that the focus on large fires "should continue to be put on human activities by burning stubble and pasture", and encourages post-confinement awareness of leisure activities such as "barbecues, utilization the vehicle off the forest tracks and the abandonment of waste that can lead to fires. "

However, an analysis by the Meteored Meteorology Department points out that the reduction of activity in forests and mountains, as well as the increase in vegetation due to the increase in rainfall, could lead to a summer at risk for the appearance of large fires.

With particularly lush vegetation, with paths and forests full of undergrowth, this situation could mean "a time bomb as soon as summer arrives and its high temperatures", warn the experts of this department through a statement.

On May 5, the Government launched the 2020 campaign against forest fires, which has a hundred air and ground resources together with the support of nearly 3,000 troops from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and the Air Force.

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