Edit an Item

Data is Null. This method or property cannot be called on Null values.

URL on Website

Title

Category

SubCategory (for Calendar)

Subtitle

Tickler

Author(s)

Contributors

Article or Column Series

Country

City

Placename

Keywords

Body

With the arrival of summer in Argentina, and the consequent increase in heat and the possibility of fires spreading in the country, neighbors are mobilizing in the face of a significant reduction in key funds to protect forests.

For example, in C&&o&&rdoba they collaborate with firefighters by carrying containers with liters and liters of water to the flames, in times of drought, among other activities.

They should not be synonymous, since the spread of fire is avoidable, but this time is already known as the fire season. During September, only in that province in central Argentina, fire razed thousands of hectares: 69,000 so far in 2024, an area larger than three times the city of Buenos Aires. In 2023, 40,000 hectares had already burned in that same locality, according to data compiled by the Ombudsman of the Nation.

They throw themselves against the fire
From where Cintia Cruz and Ariel Barranca live, in the middle of the forest in San Esteban, in the Punilla Valley, they could see how the fire was advancing. They notified the authorities, but official help arrived too late. Two days after the fires began, the flames reached their house and those of other neighbors.

Faced with this, they decided, like so many others, to join the fight of the local fire department. With hoses, drums and a truck, they tried to help put out the main sources of fire. They did not manage to take too many things; in their truck they had 200-liter water drums to put out the fire they found on the way. “At one point I grabbed some clothes and said: I have to take this. I took it out of the closet, put it on the bed and, hearing the crackling of the flames, I turned around and went out with a bucket to wet something,” says Barranca.

When the fire was too close to their homes, Cruz and Barranca left. They helped other neighbors evacuate the area and left their things behind.

Today, where they lived there are only ashes and remains of what was once their home. Thanks to the work of the firefighters and the rains, the active fires were extinguished, but the area remains in a state of emergency: October and November are two of the driest months of the year.

The neighbors, who have become environmental activists, are in coordination with the Colibr&&i&& Forest Brigade, an initiative that has been collaborating with firefighters for years and carrying out other activities such as sharing information in WhatsApp groups and other social networks; organizing workshops and deliberative assemblies and calling for reforestation days. They all share the concern about the insufficient fire prevention policies.

According to the National Fire Management Service, 95% of fires are caused by human activity, so prevention is essential and not just the subsequent response.

Withdrawal of public resources
During the fires in C&&o&&rdoba, President Javier Milei flew over the area together with the Minister of Defense, Luis Petri, and the Secretary General of the Presidency, his sister Karina Milei.

This gesture contrasts with the budgetary response to the emergency. While Congress declared an environmental, economic and housing emergency for 180 days in that province, the government published a decree in the official bulletin that dissolved the Trust Fund for the Environmental Protection of Native Forests, which established the minimum budgets for the enrichment, restoration, conservation, use and sustainable management of these ecosystems.

The government explained that the dissolution of said fund is in response to "deficiencies in the records used that make it difficult to follow up on the actions and shortcomings that affect the Territorial Ordinances of Native Forests originally approved. - And that also responds to a - deficit of institutional and logistical capacity of the jurisdictions to report and demonstrate the effective application of funds, together with the lack of management reports, statistics and indicators and the lack of an Operating Manual. "

According to official data analyzed by the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation, the budget of the Undersecretariat of Environment and the Administration of National Parks has fallen by more than 40% in the first half of 2024, due to the effect of inflation and the lack of compensatory expansions. Within this Undersecretariat is the National Fire Management Service, responsible for preventing and fighting fires.

The same report from the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation shows that the 2025 Budget Bill allocates $28,603 million to prevent and protect the environment from fires, less than 0.025% of the total, and that the participation of the Undersecretariat of the Environment will represent only 0.066% of the total Budget, "a drop that goes from 12.25% to 25% if the inflation of the 2025 Budget is considered and.

Notes / Research

Photo 1 Link

Photo 1 Caption

Photo 2 Link

Photo 2 Caption

Photo 3 Link

Photo 3 Caption

Photo 4 Link

Photo 4 Caption

Photo 5 Link

Photo 5 Caption

Video 1 Title

Video 1 Link

Video 2 Title

Video 2 Link

Sources

Corrections

Date Created

Date Published

Status

Cancel