Forestry authorities said yesterday 5,343 fires that damaged
84,000 hectares of woods were reported between April and June, and
that local governments should do more to prevent and control forest
fires in the autumn, when they are most likely to occur.
"The third quarter of the year is a key time for fires caused by
lightning in northeast China and Inner
Mongolia, two of China's largest forest zones with dry weather
and increasingly windy days," said Cao Qingyao, spokesperson for
the State Forestry Administration (SFA).
Cao said that, although the area affected by forest fires was 83
percent lower than the same period in the previous three years,
numbers of fires and casualties had doubled, with 41 people killed
and 15 injured.
He said controlling forest fires "will become more difficult in
autumn with people flocking to forests to harvest crops and herbs
for medicine."
"Anything that can cause fires must be carefully monitored,
while the authorities must get ready to mitigate any damage
caused," he added.
Parts of forests destroyed in the last quarter included woodland
in north China's Shanxi
Province and the southwestern province of Sichuan,
he quoted the SFA's latest reports as saying.
About one-third of the fires were caused by people working in
the forests; other causes included lightning and fires spreading
from neighboring countries.
So far, probes into 66 percent of the fires have been completed,
with 3,400 people investigated. About 640 people have been
sentenced for arson or related crimes, said Cao.
In the first half of this year the SFA also looked into more
than 200,000 cases of illegal logging, including excessive and
unlicensed felling, the reclamation of woodland for farming and
occupying forests for new projects.
Forestry authorities have imposed fines of more than 136 million
yuan (US$16.8 million) in such cases.
(China Daily July 25, 2005)