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    - Photo via Costa Rica Firefighters - |
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Published on Wednesday,
January 19, 2022
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Park rangers set a Permanent Alert status launching the beginning of the 2022 forest fire season, announced the National System of Conservation Areas, known as Sinac, the organization in charge of the management of all the wild areas and national parks in the country. According to Rafael Gutiérrez-Rojas, director of Sinac, the alert goal is to increase the operational actions of daily fire detection. The plan is to use satellite images, activate permanent watchtowers and more use of land and aerial patrols, among other strategies, he said. The surveillance operation counts with more than 850 people trained, including 570 forest firefighters, 280 park rangers and volunteers, to carry out prevention work along with the country for the extinction of forest fires within the national parks. Rangers are also providing workshops to neighboring communities to inform the population about precautionary measures to avoid fires. Along with community outreach, Sinac plans to launch a media prevention campaign, authorities said. Since December of last year, the country began cleaning vegetation using controlled fires causing three forest fires near some protected wild areas- thighs was just in January. Sugar cane growers routinely burn off the vegetation in their fields to make cutting the cane easier and to eliminate dangerous pests. According to the data provided by the organization, the dry months of March and April are the most critical for forest fires to occur. The end of the summer season increases the dangers of practicing slash and burn methods on agriculture because of high winds, high temperature and low humidity. From a technical point of view, the country will have more critical seasons each year due to the effects of climate change, which is modifying the structure and conditions of the plants making them easier to burn, as well as a large accumulation of biomass, Sinac said in its statement. Officials remind the population that only with the authorization of the Ministry of Agriculture, controlled fires can be an instrument for cleaning properties of unwanted vegetation. "It is forbidden to burn in empty lots, or make fires in protected wild areas," authorities said. One of the most recent forest fires happened yesterday in the Santa Rosa National Park, in Liberia Canton, Guanacaste Province. According to the firefighters' report, at 9 a .m. an emergency call was received about a fire in the area known as Colonia Bolaños. Firefighters from the Guanacaste Conservation Area and La Cruz Canton attended the emergency. As well as park rangers and police officers who managed the traffic of vehicles nearest the area. There were no people affected by smoke or flames during the emergency, firefighters said. Surveillance and control actions were increased in and around the Protected Wild Areas throughout the country, due to the boost in tourists during the holidays. Recently, the Canadian Inter-agency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) aid in the management of forest fires in Costa Rica, as part of a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Natural Resources of Canada and the Ministry of the Environment. ----------------- What have you heard about forest fires in your community? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com   
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