Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Fewer Forest Fires

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA CITY, Jun 28 2004 (IPS) - Guatemala recorded 368 forest fires from January to early June of this year, just half the 731 that occurred in the same period in 2003. ''We were able to reduce forest fires by 50 percent, and 91 percent less of the forests were burned,'' Eduardo González, head of the presidential secretariat, told Tierramérica.

''This year 7,000 hectares of forest were burned, while last year the total was 83,000,'' said the official, who coordinated the state and private institutions entrusted with disaster prevention plans.

''An important factor,'' he said, ''was that the rains began earlier this year, putting out some of the fires in Petén,'' the country's biggest department, and which holds more than 21,000 square kilometers of forest.

González noted that of the fires reported this year, just 30.8 percent affected protected areas