From January 1st to July 22nd of this year in Sardinia there were 1135 fires, 4128 hectares of which 719 hectares of forest, 296 of pasture and 3111 of "other": «These are abandoned countryside or reed thickets or low vegetation», he explains the regional councilor for the Environment with responsibility for Civil Protection, Rosanna Laconi. To the official data must be added those still to be accounted for with the fires of Orune (7-800 hectares) and Villasor (a thousand hectares), which broke out after 22 July.
This month alone - on the 22nd - «there were 396 fires for 1565 hectares covered by fire and of these 464 hectares of forest. In 2023, there were 379 fires in the same period. 523 in 2022, and 637 in the terrible year of 2017." Since the beginning of this legislature "we have started working on the firefighting front", adds the member of the Todde Council.
Laconi assures that she intends «to bring to the council as soon as possible the hiring plan for the increase of the forces on the ground, in particular of Forestas, the agency in which the sole director whom we appointed was missing for 4 and a half years us, and the Forestry Corps." For Forestas there will be an increase of 600 people in 2024. « By next week we will launch the executive plan to be able to start it: the increase in personnel is in fact fundamental because the teams on the ground are essential not only for fighting but also for the protection of the territory and for the prevention and cleaning of the undergrowth. Excess biomass, in fact, is an excellent fuel for fire."
The councilor also recalls that a "large component of these fires have malicious and negligent origins: responsible behavior is needed on the part of citizens: each of us is a custodian of the territory".
Each fire, explains Laconi, is more damage for the island but also for the farmers: " The areas affected by the fire for 10 years are restricted for grazing, thus taking away the land and resources from the shepherds."
But not only that: «The more the fires increase, the more desertification increases, the more heat, atmospheric warming and drought increase which cause more fires to increase. It's a vicious circle."
(Unioneonline)