Publication Name

BALKAN VITAL GRAPHICS

BACKGROUND

MINING

WATER

NATURE

Forests on fire

The summer of 2007 brought another heat wave to the

Balkans, with widespread forest fires. The extent of burnt

forest may differ a great deal from one year to the next,

but it is quite clear that over the past 20 years, the fre-

quency of forest fires has gradually increased in south-

east Europe. In Albania, NATO reported about 100 fires

in a single week in July, affecting about 1 500 hectares

of forest. The areas most severely hit were Kukes, Tro-

poja and Erseka. Over the same period, Kosovo suffered

about 20 forest fires, primarily in areas bordering on Al-

bania and Macedonia. In the course of July, there were

occasional forest fires in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia.

Damage after forest fires is difficult to estimate from

one country to the next, there being no international

standards for such comparisons. But in terms of en-

vironmental damage, forest fires contribute to the de-

struction of valuable species and their habitats, to soil

erosion, the spread of insects, greenhouse gas emis-

sions and other impacts. For example, bark beetles are

a serious threat to the pine forests of Macedonia.

But fires do not mean loss of life or livelihood for everyone.

A burnt forest is not completely worthless because the

wood can still be used for various purposes. The leftovers

must be processed as soon as possible after the fires have

been extinguished to prevent the bark beetle population

from spreading. This makes work for the timber industry,

particularly as wood prices are currently high and logging

is not permitted inmany forests. Hearing this, some people

may wonder whether fires were not started deliberately.

Among causes cited for the fires are faulty power lines,

agricultural practices, careless behaviour by people or

lightning. Cross-border fires are a further problem since

fires do not respect political divisions. A regional approach

needs to be employed in the prevention of devastating

cross-border forest fires, based on common regional

strategy, which currently is not in place in the Balkans.

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Source: AQUA satellite, 25

July 2007, 11:15 UTC.