Ba Vi National Park is one of the nine
areas across the country that are at serious risk from forest fires, but a lack
of awareness among locals is making fire prevention and fighting more difficult,
according to local authorities.

The
park, a famous ecological tourism zone, is home to more than 900 plant species,
45 animal species and 115 bird species.

Ba Vi
District has over 1,700ha of natural forest and an 8,500ha plantation, according
to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Forest
Management.

Lack of water

Head of
the Ba Vi Forest Management Unit Nguyen Xuan Dung said that there were only a
few streams in Ba Vi Forest and the lack of water meant that a fire could spread
quickly.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Dinh Tran, head of the Ba Trai Forest Management Station which
manages the forest throughout seven mountainous communes, said the main culprits
behind forest fires were local residents who did not take enough care when
burning land for cultivation or warming their buffaloes.

Workers
also often forgot to clean up grass and brushwood which could easily catch fire,
he said.

At
present the park had 16 teams of forest rangers, but “the number of forest
rangers is so few they cannot control all the areas they are responsible for” .

Local
commune fire prevention and fighting teams did not receive any payment so it was
difficult to call on local residents to help out, he added.

The
biggest fire in the park over the past two years was caused by a careless
resident. In May this year, a resident failed to fully extinguish a fire he had
started to dispose of some grass. The fire spread and destroyed nearly one ha of
crops.

Deputy
director of the Ba Vi Forest Management Department Nguyen Van Dien said that the
department had been working on a number of measures to tackle the issue.

Ten
teams of fire prevention and fighting volunteers had been set up in tourist
areas throughout the district.

“The
teams will attend two training courses about fire prevention and fighting skills
in January and November next year,” he said.

Besides
rudimentary fire fighting equipment such as poles and long-handled sickles, next
year forest rangers would be equipped with lorries to transport water and pumps.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will equip us
with 26 giant fans that will be extremely useful in
our fight against forest fires,” Dien said.

Raising awareness

Another
important task was raising local residents’ awareness of fire prevention, he
added.

“We set
up a team to educate people on fire safety with the participation of some local
residents,” said Dien.

Fire
safety has also been inserted into local school curriculum to raise awareness..

More
than 100 households have been assigned to protect more than 5,000ha of forest
with an allowance of VND100,000 ($5) per hectare a year.

“We will
try to raise the allowance in future,” Dien said.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News