Forest fires go down 75pc

THE timber industry has recorded a decline in the hectarage of forests lost to fires in 2017 following the implementation of control measures aimed at protecting forestry plantations, coupled with massive educational campaigns.

In an interview with The Herald yesterday, Timber Producers Federation chief executive Mr Darlington Duwa said the industry was still collating data, but preliminary statistics showed that forestry fires had gone down by about 75 percent.

“Although we had a lot of challenges in 2017, we are happy that the number of veld fi res went down significantly,” he said.

“We generally lose about 2 000 hectares to fires per year, but this year we lost less than 500 hectares, and this figure is still on the high side.

“This was a result of a combination of interventions made by concerned stakeholders.”

Mr Duwa said most timber companies had increased security around plantations, which had led to apprehension of a number of culprits.

The timber industry has for years been under threat from seasonal fires, which had become a predictable annual menace, with thousands of forestry jobs lost as a result of the arson, particularly in the Eastern Highlands.

Most of these fires have been caused by illegal settlers as they destroyed trees to pave way for their agricultural and mining activities.

“This year, we have been working on improving relations between stakeholders and trying to address some of those challenges that have persistently been hogging the industry and we hope things will be better in 2018,” said Mr Duwa.