Outdoor fire

Central America is on fire. This is shown by the map presented by the Directorate General for Civil Protection and European Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO): thousands of hectares of forest, many in protected reserve areas, burning due to fires uncontrolled forests and, in several cases, caused by the hand of man for extractive activities. So far in 2024, between January 1 and April 9, claims have had “significant increases” compared to the same period last year. Nicaragua is the most serious case with 289,709 hectares burned, the highest number in the region.The fire information was collected through Copernicus, a European Union program for Earth observation and monitoring, which analyzes the planet and the environment, and the Global Forest Fire Information System (GWIS). in English). According to these data, in Nicaragua there have been more than 10,000 active fires so far this year.The map was published this April 10 and revealed, always in the Nicaraguan case, that in the last 48 hours more than 140 active fires had been identified through the MODIS satellite sensor. “They are areas on the ground that are clearly hotter than their surroundings and are marked as active fires,” the agency warned in a statement.The GWIS details that, in the period analyzed, 211,432 hectares were burned in Guatemala. In Honduras, 267,285; in Costa Rica 84,265; in Panama 83,801; in Belize 29,715; and in El Salvador, 17,603. Given the high number of forest fires, the government of Bernardo Arévalo declared a “state of calamity” in Guatemala for a period of 30 days. 80% of the fires in Guatemala “have been set and are intended to harm” his government, according to the president. Arévalo said that the deputies who refused to approve the state of calamity “must respond to the people” because they refuse to give the Government the tools to respond to the emergency.The DG ECHO report warned that in the following days the danger of forest fires in Mexico would increase, going “from high to extreme in most of its territory, particularly in the central states.”An analysis by the NGO Fundación del Río on the situation of hot spots and forest fires in Nicaragua presented in June 2023 revealed that during the first half of that year there was an increase in incidents, specifically in protected areas, indigenous and Afro-descendant territories. of the country's Caribbean. During this period, 1,936 forest fires were recorded, that is, 1,703 more than those reported by government institutions (233) in this same period.“84% of the incidence of hot spots nationwide are being reported within protected areas and indigenous and Afro-descendant territories. In indigenous and Afro-descendant territories, 69% of incidents are reported, while in protected areas, 15%, which demonstrates an evident advance of the agricultural frontier,” Amaru Ruiz, president of the Fundación del Río, told América Futura. an NGO that was canceled by the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.Nicaragua is home to two of the main biosphere reserves in Central America: Indio Maíz and Bosawás, both affected by illegal livestock farming. The invasion by “settlers” in these jungles has drastically reduced the foliage to make way for pastures and farms for the production of beef, one of Nicaragua's main import items.In 2018, an illegal rancher caused one of the largest fires in Nicaraguan history in Indio Maíz. The incident destroyed almost 70% of the reserve. Illegal livestock farming occurs due to the “omission and even complicity” of government authorities, the indigenous peoples who live in these jungles constantly denounce.“In the case of Nicaragua, its own monitoring system does not have the capacity to verify all the heat points in the country. More than 60% of the heat points have not been verified, which demonstrates the lack of public policies to address this problem. We saw that six years ago with the fire in Indio Maíz and they still don't have the capacity,” Ruiz criticized. “This week the death of one of the people who were putting out a fire in northern Nicaragua was reported, specifically in a pine ecosystem. The number of hot spots is concentrated in the Northern Caribbean region and the Pacific area.” he added.The former political prisoner and exile in the United States, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, criticized that while “the dictatorship of Ortega and Murillo spends resources on the Army and Police, and searches for military tanks in Belarus, the country burns in forest fires.”In Nicaragua, there are no details of the number of firefighters assigned to put out the fires, unlike the cases of Guatemala and Honduras, which have a similar number of hectares burned. In the first country, 3,500 firefighters are involved in extinguishing efforts, while in the second, 1,300.