Post fires: A necessary regulation
The magnitude of the disaster caused by the fires suffered was due to the difficulties to control its spread or advance, which refutes the thesis of intentionality as the cause of the magnitude of the catastrophe.
The different organisms, public and private, and the related people, have focused on evaluating and planning based on the experience of the last fires in Chile. The way is sought to build policies to prevent the great environmental damage caused by mega-fire. 476 was a thousand hectares of forest plantations, agricultural crops and human settlements destroyed by fire, causing a loss of USD30 million.
The issue is not simple and it is not so new - in fact, since 1873 the Penal Code typifies the crime of forest burning - although clearly efforts must be put into a new regulation of forestry and livestock activity.
Almost 200 years ago the naturalist Claudio Gay called the attention of the authorities about the lack of regulation in the forestry field and publicly denounced that "mining ordinances authorize mines to cut trees and destroy everything"And along with other characters of the time, gathered by the National Agriculture Society, reiterated this concern stating that"the mountains have been cut in our country without number or rate, without order or measure " and wondered guessing the future "What can be expected but the aridity and devastation?" The phenomenon of forest fires is not new, the new thing is that we are facing a new threat: Climate Change.
Then, looking for responsible for intentionally causing fires (which historically have been), or directing the glances at the flammable properties of the pines (which is a reality), is simply to simplify the problem and not face a reality that can be repeated annually irreversibly.
El Study of climatic variability in Chile for the 21st century, carried out by the Department of Geophysics of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile, says that "As expected, positive changes (warming) dominate in all regions. The current average temperature change over continental Chile varies between 2 ° and 4 ° C, being more pronounced towards the Andean regions and decreasing from north to south. Seasonally the heating is higher in summer exceeding the 5 ° C in some high sectors of the Andes Mountain Range particularly in summer " and add, "There are two aspects that stand out, one derived from the change in temperatures and another one of the changes in precipitation. The first one is related to the reduction of the Andean area capable of storing snow among the seasons of the year. Considering that the isotherm of 0 ° C suffers a rise in height due to the heating process, the winter floods of the rivers with Andean headwaters will be increased by the consequent increase of the contributing basins and the snow dam will be diminished. In the cordilleran region between the latitudes 30 and 40 ° S, that corresponds to the regions with the highest productivity from the agricultural and forestry point of view, there are reductions in the area included in the zero isotherm in all seasons of the year (...) It should be noted that in the winter season all this territory has decreased rainfall. The loss also extends to the summer period throughout the territory included and further north by the Andean sector. Such pluviometric decreases are added to the rise of the zero isotherm to offer a particularly worrisome picture in the Central and South Central regions", Predicts the study.
Then, adapt to global warming and advance the regulation of forestry and agricultural activity are the central factors where the emphasis of state and private planning should be placed. The important thing is to put all the elements on the discussion table and not archive it when the danger has passed.
It is true that the pine tree (Pinus radiata) and the eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) in their places of origin (North America and Australia) developed adaptive qualities to take advantage of fire, because it was present in all its evolution. It is also true that the native or endemic species of Chile do not have that quality, because the fire only began to affect the local ecosystem after the arrival of the human being, therefore they are not adapted to take advantage of the forest fires. But, despite this irrefutable reality, the problem is not the variety of forest plantations, as has been said, but the extension and planning of these, because a carpet of forests that extends for miles continuously is a true high-speed road to fire, which makes it unstoppable.
Future planning should contemplate limited areas of forests or forest plantations, interspersed with agricultural crops, with sufficient access roads and away from urban settlements, because the magnitude of the disaster caused by the fires suffered was due to the difficulties to control their spread or advance, which refutes the thesis of intentionality as the cause of the magnitude of the catastrophe. There is no denying that intentionality has historically been an important agent in the ignition of fires, but the data indicate that this time it was not the factor that explains the magnitude or extent of the disaster.
The climate has changed and you have to adjust to it. Future planning, although urgent, cannot arise correctly without defining with medium accuracy the reasons or causes of the damage, since it is about building a plan that prevents or eliminates these risks, otherwise we will attend Groundhog Day over and over again. time, because Climate Change is a reality and has irreversible characteristics.
Source: Blueberrieschile.cl - Blueberriesconsulting.com
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