Curbing forest fires
VILLAGE headmen play a crucial role in the prosecution of people involved in igniting forest fires.
Forestry Ministry forest guard Lemeki Bose made this comment while speaking to villagers of Dravuni Island, Kadavu recently.
He told the villagers that they needed photographic evidence in order to implicate perpetrators of illegal forest fires.
Mr Bose said photographic evidence should be given to village heads who would use this to lodge official reports with police.
“Most of the times forest fires go unreported because people do not know how to go about reporting these cases,” he said.
“Forest fires are just like cases of arson because, in fact, the act itself is the burning of ecosystems that house millions of organisms. Most forest fires arise from unattended burning of forests for agricultural purposes.”
Kadavu Province conservation officer Kelera Kuli said the increase in yaqona price had let to a boom in production and this had resulted in the burning of forests to make space for farms. Ms Kuli said their biggest obstacle, as a conservation group, was to try and change people’s attitudes towards conservation of forests and to make farmers realise the importance of forests within the ecosystem.
She said the awareness messages were slowly filtering down to farmers.
“They agree with efforts to plant more trees and conserve their forest cover by practicing sustainable farming methods.
“Within the province of Kadavu, the problem of forest fires has not worsened as yet, so we have time to at least educate farmers before the matter gets out of hand.”