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Amazon rainforest on fire
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 Tessa Marsman
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Puerto Ayacucho, mar 14, ABN, (Tessa Marsman)- A thick cloud of smoke is covering the Amazon in Venezuela. Local governments in the state capital, which serves as the entrance to the Amazon rainforest sound the alarm. But for lack of communication, infrastructure and fuel the rest of the world does not notice that large parts of the jungle are disappearing for good and rescue is still not mobilized.
Official estimations about the entire 1800 hectares of the Amazon are not available, but just around the relatively accessible capital of Atures, Puerto Ayacucho, twenty of the seventy hectares burned down the past two months and the amount increases daily with a rapid speed. Indigenous organisation leader of ORPIA, Alirio Tividor, tells the Agencia Bolivariana that he thinks «a 20 percent of the Amazon is burning down».
Drought and fires are common in these time of year. But this year slash and burn techniques traditionally starting at the beginning of the dry season in December, are converting into large forest fires.
The majority of the mainly indigenous populations live in traditional easily inflammable leaf huts, gaining food by collecting and hunting or working small fields.
Their residential area is the dense rainforests of the Amazon which is in its over all inaccessible. The only way to cross large distances is over the extended network of rivers. But due to the extreme drought of this year the traditional transport way by river is being blocked. The river is to low to sail, causes a transport problem for humans but also for the transport of fuel.
Air extinguish resources are not available to the local government and local fire brigades; and there is no prevention plan nor immediate action of the national government or any other institution. Up till now only one extinction helicopter has been sent by the armed forces to cover the total area.
«We asked the government for helicopters and other supply, but they don´t pay attention» says the director of the state office of environment Hector Escandell in puerto Ayacucho 1200 kilometres away from the government centrer Caracas.
«The helicopter that they send us only comes once in a while», he adds, «the days that the helicopter is not available a thick smoke is covering our region».
To the local governments in Puerto Ayacucho, only ten fire fighters and 2 cars are available to fight the extensive fires. The rest of the unique rain forest of the Amazon and their indigenous tribes «will be monitored to localize the fires and to try to fight these fires, there is no other way», says the director.
The cause of the fires are diverse. According to the local ministry of environment the blaze is the result of annual land recuperation fires and waste incineration that, in combination with the drought this year caused large lapses of virgin rain forest to burn down.
Also the change in lifestyle of the indigenous population plays a role. Many of these peoples once nomads, nowadays live permanently in communities. This change puts pressure on the land and causes them to seek and burn more jungle forest.
This year the pressure increased as the result of a government social program which provides credits for sowing and working fields. «Since the start of the program people burned down more pieces of rainforest to create yucca fields than ever before», explains a local journalist of Celva TV in Puerto Ayacucho.
In Caño Grulla, a community at the Orinoco river, fires destroyed agricultural fields. The result is the ruin of the daily bread of 2 thousand person community.
«We tracked down the miscreant, it was a person who left a candle burning after he slept in the field. We will punish him severely, but that does not bring our fields back», says Claudia Alvarez a member of the Piaroa community.
In San Juan de Manipiare, a village in the north of the Amazon, complaints of asthma are numerous like anywhere else in the region. The local government started radio commercials warning that the burnings could cause respiration problems, but radio signals cannot be received in most parts of the Amazon.
In April annual heavy rains are expected, but by than large parts already will be burned down and recuperation takes years if possible at all. |
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| ABN 03:59 pm 14/03/2007 |
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