Ecobreves – CUBA: Forest Fires and Drought

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

HAVANA, Apr 11 2005 (IPS) - The intense drought that has been thrashing Cuba increased the risk of forest fire, which last year burned 11,447 hectares of forest, with losses totaling 16 million dollars. Official sources report that a blaze lasting 10 days destroyed some 1,500 hectares of forest in late March-early April in the eastern mountain range Pinares de Mayarí.

In Camagüey, 500 km east of Havana, a fire favored by the local drought conditions affected an area of forests and coastal brushland covering nearly 400 hectares.

Sources from the government's National Center for Protected Areas told Tierramérica that the fire danger from drought is aggravated by negligence on the part of poachers, who light campfires in banned areas.