Cabandié: “95% of fires are due to human action”

While the flames have already reached 15% of Corrientes, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Juan Cabandié, said that “95%” of the forest fires that break out in Argentina are “by human action”, and assured that “it is complex” the current situation in Argentina, where drought and the downstream of rivers caused an increase in igneous foci in recent years. ” 95 percent of fires are caused by human action. The rest are from thunderstorms and other phenomena. But, for the most part, the outbreaks are intentional and, to a lesser extent, due to recklessness,” said Cabandié.The official formulated these concepts at a meeting of the Environment Commission of the Senate of the Nation that he attended to report on the situation of the fires in the province of Corrientes, where the flames have already reached 15% of the surface of that district.

Fires in Corrientes│Photo: NA

“We didn’t see any natural weather events these days. From December to today we cannot say that the fires were caused by one or two or more lightning bolts that set fire to the fields,” Cabandié said. The official added that in many cases these are arson for the cleaning of fields, but avoided pointing to the producers. Cabandié also highlighted “the performance of volunteer firefighters” and sought to clarify doubts about the use of airplanes to put out forest fires. “The use of hydrant planes alone does not put out fires, but it is the brigadistas who do the most work,” he said. The minister criticized the role of justice in the search and punishment of those guilty of the generation of forest fires. “From Ambiente we approach the Justice as plaintiffs, providing tools for investigations. For example, to know the ownership of the domains where the fields happened to burn. But Justice never found anyone,” he said.

Original source in Spanish