By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Jun 8 1996 (IPS)

More than 20 people have died so far this year in forest fires which have swept uncontrollably through vast areas of Russia, destroying tracts of valuable timber and wildlife habitat and leaving large areas of land open to erosion from the weather.

There have been 9,968 fires since the start of the dry weather, which had enveloped 588,441 hectares of forest land and 206,511 ha of non-forest land and 49,484 ha of taiga have been destroyed by tree-top fires.

According to Boris Denisov of the Federal Forestry Service, six people have died in fires in Irkutsk Region where there were 89 separate fires burning at the end of May, one of which covered 10,000 hectares. Vast areas around Lake Baikal have been destroyed which were home to unique species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

Seven people have been killed in 63 fires in Buryatia and seven in 20 fires in Tuva. The situation in Siberia and the far east remains serious, especially in the Chita and Irkutsk Regions, Khabarovsk Territory and the republics of Tuva and Buryatia. The dry May has broken all records in Udmurtia, where the number of fires has exceeded 300 causing extensive damage.

Fires in the Altay Mountains have also destroyed unique areas of flora and fauna. Tree-top fires have swept through coniferous forests in the Tunkin national park, causing irreparable damage to a unique forest reserve.

Forest fires in the Amur River region of the Russian Far East led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the area in mid- May because of a combination of dry weather and strong winds which were fanning the flames.

The district centre of Amursk and the villages of Dzhuyen and Achan in Amursk District were encircled by flames, but work by forestry protection aviation units was hampered by a shortage of fuel and equipment.

The situation was eased slightly in neighbouring Khabarovsk after substantial rain fell at the end of May enabling a state of emergency which had been imposed there earlier to be lifted. But it was still the worst May on record for the Territory.

“I haven’t registered so many fires in the month of May in all the 25 years I have been practising as forester,” says Vladimir Kolomytsev, Khabarovsk Territory’s Forest Administration chief forester.

“In the past years there were no more than 200-250 forest fires during that particular month, whereas this year we have had over 400.”

In the republic of Tuva, more than 20,000 ha of taiga have been affected by fire this year and more than 270,000 ha of arable land. Electricity lines and telephone cables have been disabled. A number of shepherds’ huts have been destroyed.

The head of one local farm was killed trying to put out the fire which was threatening to engulf his land. Tuva’s civil defence and emergencies centre puts the damage caused by the fires at more than R6.5 billion (1.3 billion US).

The republican government says forestry workers burning grasses at the edge of the taiga led to the first fires. The work should have been done earlier, before the snow covering the taiga melted. Boris Denisov of the Federal Forestry Service says that in general the main reason for the fires was the practice of burning stubble, despite a ban in a number of areas.

In early spring it is impossible to travel through the Russian countryside without seeing stubble fires along all the roadsides. Burning is the standard technique for clearing old vegetation before the spring sowing, even for individuals tilling small allotments and roadside plots of land. Often the fires are left burning through the night unattended.

Combatting the fires has so far involved more than 10,000 people, 2,000 vehicles and 65 planes and helicopters. More air cover is needed but it costs nearly the equivalent of 2,000 US dollars to hire a fire-fighting aircraft for one hour, and the fire services do not have enough funds to engage the 130 aircraft which are currently needed.

In the past, fires on this scale would have been fought by up to 300 planes and helicopters. However, the Russian Finance Ministry has set aside no money for fighting forest fires this year and has not yet covered the costs of putting fires out last year. Even where funding is available, there are often delays in its reaching the areas where it is needed.

The State Duma called on President Boris Yeltsin on 17 May to allocate funding to firefighting units. The fires were an emergency requiring the maximum involvement of both ground and airborne firefighting services, members told Yeltson. They asked him to allocate R150 billion (about 30 million US dlrs) for fighting forest fires.

The Duma also warned that large-scale forest fires could break out in other regions, including on territories contaminated by radionuclides. So far just 200,000 US dlrs of central government funding has been dispatched to Buryatia where local authorities have already spent over R5 billion (one million US dlrs) to combat the flames.

The republic has introduced a state of emergency and set up a special forest-fire task force. Forestry protection agencies and the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs were instructed to introduce rigorous patrolling of forest roads after several cases of arson had been reported.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Jun 4 1996 (IPS)

More than 20 people have died so far this year in forest fires which have swept uncontrollably through vast areas of Russia, destroying tracts of valuable timber and wildlife habitat and leaving large areas of land open to erosion from the weather.

There have been 9,968 fires since the start of the dry weather, which had enveloped 588,441 hectares of forest land and 206,511 ha of non-forest land and 49,484 ha of taiga have been destroyed by tree-top fires.

According to Boris Denisov of the Federal Forestry Service, six people have died in fires in Irkutsk Region where there were 89 separate fires burning at the end of May, one of which covered 10,000 hectares. Vast areas around Lake Baikal have been destroyed which were home to unique species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

Seven people have been killed in 63 fires in Buryatia and seven in 20 fires in Tuva. The situation in Siberia and the far east remains serious, especially in the Chita and Irkutsk Regions, Khabarovsk Territory and the republics of Tuva and Buryatia. The dry May has broken all records in Udmurtia, where the number of fires has exceeded 300 causing extensive damage.

Fires in the Altay Mountains have also destroyed unique areas of flora and fauna. Tree-top fires have swept through coniferous forests in the Tunkin national park, causing irreparable damage to a unique forest reserve.

Forest fires in the Amur River region of the Russian Far East led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the area in mid- May because of a combination of dry weather and strong winds which were fanning the flames.

The district centre of Amursk and the villages of Dzhuyen and Achan in Amursk District were encircled by flames, but work by forestry protection aviation units was hampered by a shortage of fuel and equipment.

The situation was eased slightly in neighbouring Khabarovsk after substantial rain fell at the end of May enabling a state of emergency which had been imposed there earlier to be lifted. But it was still the worst May on record for the Territory.

“I haven’t registered so many fires in the month of May in all the 25 years I have been practising as forester,” says Vladimir Kolomytsev, Khabarovsk Territory’s Forest Administration chief forester.

“In the past years there were no more than 200-250 forest fires during that particular month, whereas this year we have had over 400.”

In the republic of Tuva, more than 20,000 ha of taiga have been affected by fire this year and more than 270,000 ha of arable land. Electricity lines and telephone cables have been disabled. A number of shepherds’ huts have been destroyed.

The head of one local farm was killed trying to put out the fire which was threatening to engulf his land. Tuva’s civil defence and emergencies centre puts the damage caused by the fires at more than R6.5 billion (1.3 billion US).

The republican government says forestry workers burning grasses at the edge of the taiga led to the first fires. The work should have been done earlier, before the snow covering the taiga melted. Boris Denisov of the Federal Forestry Service says that in general the main reason for the fires was the practice of burning stubble, despite a ban in a number of areas.

In early spring it is impossible to travel through the Russian countryside without seeing stubble fires along all the roadsides. Burning is the standard technique for clearing old vegetation before the spring sowing, even for individuals tilling small allotments and roadside plots of land. Often the fires are left burning through the night unattended.

Combatting the fires has so far involved more than 10,000 people, 2,000 vehicles and 65 planes and helicopters. More air cover is needed but it costs nearly the equivalent of 2,000 US dollars to hire a fire-fighting aircraft for one hour, and the fire services do not have enough funds to engage the 130 aircraft which are currently needed.

In the past, fires on this scale would have been fought by up to 300 planes and helicopters. However, the Russian Finance Ministry has set aside no money for fighting forest fires this year and has not yet covered the costs of putting fires out last year. Even where funding is available, there are often delays in its reaching the areas where it is needed.

The State Duma called on President Boris Yeltsin on 17 May to allocate funding to firefighting units. The fires were an emergency requiring the maximum involvement of both ground and airborne firefighting services, members told Yeltson. They asked him to allocate R150 billion (about 30 million US dlrs) for fighting forest fires.

The Duma also warned that large-scale forest fires could break out in other regions, including on territories contaminated by radionuclides. So far just 200,000 US dlrs of central government funding has been dispatched to Buryatia where local authorities have already spent over R5 billion (one million US dlrs) to combat the flames.

The republic has introduced a state of emergency and set up a special forest-fire task force. Forestry protection agencies and the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs were instructed to introduce rigorous patrolling of forest roads after several cases of arson had been reported.

Excerpt: