Wildfires on the rise

/ April 10, 2013

A1CanaimaFor a week, a massive wildfire has caused serious damage in Canaima National Park. This recent photograph from the newspaper Correo del Caroní shows how the fire has now reached the Auyán-tepui.

The news report indicate authorities on the ground lack the elements needed to fight it and the Venezuelan air force doesn’t have in its fleet aircrafts for this particular task.

The government considered buying some Russian Beriev Be-200 planes back in 2010, but looks like they spent the money in armored vehicles and missile systems instead. But when the wildfires happen in allied nations like Ecuador, we lend them our helicopters.

The current situation in Canaima is the latest in a series of wildfires that have affected the country in the first trimester of this year: From the Henri Pittier Park in Aragua to the Avila in Caracas, and even here in the Turbio Valley located next to Barquisimeto, the dry season is already taking its toll on our enviroment, through the rapid increase of wildfires.

The Venezuelan park authority (INPARQUES) released yesterday a press statement, where they report the Canaima wildfire is now under relative control.

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19 thoughts on “Wildfires on the rise”

  1. This is a yearly drama …. just as soon as the rains leaves, forest fires and brush fires promptly follow. The toll of hectares turned into charcoal hide other facts such as air pollution and its impact, direct incineration of fauna, increasing isolation of populations of both plants and animals, increasing area of secondary vegetation, spread of invasive species, negative impact on ecosystem services such as flood control and pollination. The dry forest surrounding the cloud forests in Henri Pittier Park shrink practically every year. This year fires reached puente de hierro, transitional cloud forest! The botanical gardens of the UCV Maracay campus were scorched this year. As always the fires start in the neighbouring military area, run up the hill and descend onto our campus. They generally do not lift a finger to lend support. Inparques is understaffed, has a puny budget, park rangers have no real enforcement attributions, and there is a lot of mismanagement. Though dedicated rangers and civil servants do exist, but it is a daunting task.

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  2. Fires don’t start themselves, obviously Gustavo Hernandez Acevedo started all these fires as part of an effort to stop the revolution! Well guess what, the revolution doesn’t even care about these fires, so the joke is on you!

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  4. Really Gustavo? Wildfires? Who the F cares? This happens everywhere, its called a natural disasters. Please post something relevant, like PDVSA illegal movilizacion, etc. #irrevelant #dissappointedincaracaschronicles

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    • stfu, this is a good story, it shows mismanagement of the highest order. Socialists should be paragons of good strong emergency and disaster response.

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    • Not irrevelant.. When things like this happen in many other countries they are handled swiftly, bcuz those countries are not “lacking in the elements needed to fight them.”

      I think the correlation is that the gobierno is blowing its money on other stuff, like illegal movilizacion etc, and thus can’t deal with the problem appropriately.

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  5. La idea de defender el país consiste en evitar una posible invasión del imperio yankee. Pero la defensa no incluye defender las selvas, bosques, parques nacionales, reservorios de agua, ni mejorar la infraestructura del país. Mucho menos implica proveer mayor seguridad a los ciudadanos. Se trata de modelos estratégicos ya fuera de todo contexto. Maduro, el ministro de la defensa y sus secuaces cubanos siguen esperando a portaaviones clase Nimitz y regimientos de marines atacando las costas; pero en la realidad, los incendios forestales siguen ocurriendo, la delincuencia sigue en aumento, la luz se va todos los días y así sucesivamente.

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  6. The idea of defending the country is to avoid a possible invasion of the Yankee empire. But the defense does not include defending the jungles, forests, national parks, water reservoirs, and improve the country’s infrastructure. Much less involves providing greater security for citizens. These strategic models and out of context. Maduro, the defense minister and his henchmen Cubans still waiting to Nimitz class aircraft carriers and regiments of marines attacking the coasts, but in reality, forest fires continue to occur, crime continues to rise, the light goes every day and so on.

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