LookAtVietnam – Do Thanh Hai, head of the Forestry Management and Protection Division under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) talked with Viet Nam News about ways to combat forest fires.

In the first six months of this year, as many as 226 fires were reported nationwide.

Most fires were caused by people’s carelessness, however. For example, tourists did not stamp their campfires completely, threw cigarette ashes or butts on the ground, or children played with flame in forests.

In the recent hot weather, where temperatures are reaching over 40 degree Celsius, the risk of fire increases dramatically.

What about fire forecasting and warning systems?

In order to better forecast when a fire might break out and to have more effective measures in place to mitigate the impacts of fires, since 2002, the department has been using new computer software which helps to calculate fire risk. After receiving and entering all necessary information including temperature, humidity, wind level, geographic features, type of forest, the software programme will automatically analyze the data and produce a fire forecast for a certain locality. Photos taken via satellite help to forecast the risk of fires more exactly.

All information will then be sent electronically to all forest protection staff nationwide. For localities at high risk, the department would inform localities directly. In general, fire forecasting and warning is just one factor that helps reduce fires and damage to areas.

A recent fire that drew much attention of public happened in Vu Quang district in the central province of Nghe An. It took nearly 24 hours to control that fire. Do you think firefighting at present still has limitations?

The firefighting ability in localities in the country has made much progress. Despite the increase in fires in the last six months, the trend overall in the last few years has actually been a decrease in the number of fires. This is due to the guidelines for improving four key factors at localities, which are firefighting staff, equipment, logistics and leadership.

The Prime Minister has pushed for the improvement of fire prevention and fire fighting capacity with better trained staff and equipment investments. However, each province is responsible for coming up with their own funding and making investments in staff and equipment. Better off provinces tend to invest more than poorer provinces, so there are discrepancies in the fire fighting abilities of different provinces.

Can you evaluate the forest management and protection efforts over time and tell us more about plans for the future?

MARD has followed Government guidelines and taken the initiative to co-operate with other ministries, departments, sectors and local People’s Committees to manage and protect forests in the whole country. We have gained many achievements such as privatising the forestry industry, raising the community’s awareness in protecting forests, as well as implementing many measures to protect and manage forests effectively. As the result, loss of forestry resources caused by violation also reduced.

However, the result has yet to be comprehensive and stable. There is still a lot of deforestation, illegal exploitation of forest products, and improper use of forestry land. From the end of 2008 to the beginning of 2009, the number of violations increased seriously in some hot spots such as Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands), Binh Phuoc, Quang Nam, Quang Binh, Ha Tinh, Bac Can, Lang Son provinces. Therefore, in the future, the Forestry Protection Department will co-ordinate with other sectors to strengthen the implementation of the law on forest protection. In addition, each administrative level from the central government down needs to be aware of its responsibility in protecting forests and strictly fulfil its task.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News