Arsonists by Law: Ecologist Explains Why Russia Can't Fight Forest Fires

The head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Aleksandr Kurenkov, stated that since the beginning of the year, forest fires have swept through an area of ​​almost 4 million hectares in Zabaikalsky Krai. According to the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Aleksandr Kozlov , 94 fires were extinguished in the region from June 2 to 25. Their area was 1 million hectares . Let us recall that since April 14, a federal emergency regime has been in effect in the region, and an interregional emergency regime has been in effect in neighboring Buryatia.

Zabaikalsky Krai Governor Aleksandr Osipov noted the difficult climate conditions: minimal precipitation, strong winds, high temperatures. In June, the wind load decreased, which made it possible to cope with many fires. Additional forces have been sent to the region.

"A new forest fire center has been operating in the region since the beginning of the year. All available aircraft were additionally sent to Transbaikalia, including the Cyclone aircraft for artificially inducing precipitation, specialists from other regions and a large part of the federal reserve of Avialesookhrana were transferred," said Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Patrushev .

In June, the area of ​​fires in Russia decreased by 2.5 times: now about 300 thousand hectares of forest are engulfed in fire, a month earlier - more than 800 thousand hectares.

The scale and number of landscape fires have united the residents of Zabaikalsky. Hundreds of volunteers are working in the region, some of them came to help from other regions. There were also problems with the lack of equipment and gear.

Local residents have stepped up their efforts, not only monitoring the area, but also creating firebreaks and putting out secondary fires that flare up due to the wind. Assistance is provided by businesses and concerned citizens from all over the country.

Local residents note the selfless work of firefighters and volunteers. For several days now, volunteers have not even had time to rest - there are so many fires that they have to constantly move from place to place, and there are not enough people.

Despite the relative improvement of the situation, dozens of new fires are recorded daily, and the strong wind that has resumed in the region contributes to the rapid spread of fire. The map of fires in Transbaikalia and Buryatia confirms the scale of the disaster.

Fires in Transbaikalia and Buryatia on satellite images. Photo: NASA FIRMS

The fire reached the village of Bolshaya Tura, near which a military unit is located. Local residents reported explosions. The information was confirmed by the governor.

"A fire broke out at an old, unused weapons depot near the village of Bolshaya Tura. This caused explosions of a small amount of old small ammunition," the head of Zabaikalsky Krai said .

He stressed that the incident does not pose a threat to the population. The area is cordoned off, the fire is being extinguished by aircraft and a paramilitary fire brigade.

According to local media, the situation at the site has been stabilized.

According to one version, the cause of numerous fires is arson. State Duma deputy Andrei Gurulev reported the arrest of hundreds of arsonists, but most of them are minors who do not face criminal liability. Volunteers reported finding firewood in the forests, including in areas they had recently walked through. Local residents reported seeing lights in the forests at night, and then the fire started.

Residents of Zabaikalsky Krai have been warned of wind speeds of up to 20 m/s, which will contribute to the spread of fire and re-ignitions. The region is experiencing heat, with thermometer readings approaching +40 degrees in some places. According to the forecast of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center, it will be a couple of degrees cooler in Chita this weekend. The heat will subside with the start of the new week (+24 degrees is expected on Tuesday), and precipitation will come along with the coolness.

In some places in the region, it has already rained, which has only slightly improved the situation. At the same time, the precipitation prevented firefighters from localizing the forest fire in Atamanovka, which became one of the epicenters of the fight against the elements.

"The fire is 'encircled'. We planned to burn it off, but the rain that passed ruined our plans. Now we'll wait until everything dries out and then we'll do the burning. The plan is to localize this fire," said Alexey Baykov, head of the KGSAU "Zabaikalleskhoz".

Let us remind you that the population is prohibited from visiting the forest until July 10, as well as from burning dry vegetation on their own to protect against the spread of fire.

The head of the forestry department of the Nature Conservation Association, Alexey Yaroshenko , believes that burning is one of the main causes of forest fires not only in Transbaikalia, but also in other regions of the Russian Federation.

The governor of Zabaikalsky Krai blames the difficult weather conditions and drought for the situation. Gurulev criticizes local authorities for the lack of proper management during the crisis and speaks of a "system of collective irresponsibility" in the region. One thing is certain: a lot of problems have accumulated . And not only in Zabaikalsky Krai.

Several million hectares of forest burn in Russia every year. This is a trend that has been going on for decades. Experts name climate change, business interests, human activity, including illegal logging and arson to conceal this, among the causes of forest fires. The forest management system itself has been criticized after the new Forest Code (since 2007), which provides for decentralization, came into force. Despite steps towards recentralization, it has not yet been possible to completely correct the situation.

In an interview with Novye Izvestia, forestry, and fire expert Alexey Yaroshenko called for a comprehensive review of the approach to forest management and protection.

Do regional authorities have the resources and competences? Is this enough to effectively combat fires of this scale?

I don't think so. The current Forest Code of the Russian Federation implies that some of the powers for forest management, including protection of forests from fires, are transferred to the regional level, and the money for this is allocated from the federal budget in the form of special forest subsidies. In fact, the Zabaikalsky Krai receives several times less money than it needs to ensure full protection of all its forests from fire and timely extinguishing of all forest fires.

According to the expert, underfunding leads to a shortage of qualified managers and specialists who could competently organize the fight against fire, as well as ordinary experienced forest firefighters.

But, of course, this is a problem not only for the Zabaikalsky Krai, but for all large forest regions - the new Forest Code adopted in 2006 made forestry an industry almost completely dependent on the budget, and there is a chronic shortage of money in the budget to satisfy this dependence.

What are the fundamental reasons that led to the current situation? What plays a greater role: inevitable climate processes or specific failures on the ground (lack of people, problems with coordination, possible factor of illegal logging)?

The main reason for the current situation with fires in Transbaikalia, as well as in Buryatia (they are very similar: Transbaikalia has exceeded the government-set target for the area of ​​forest fires for this year by 15 times, Buryatia - by 13) is the widespread use of fire-hazardous economic practices, primarily so-called controlled preventive burning. Formally, these burnings are considered a measure of fire prevention in forests, are provided for in regional forest plans and are carried out mainly with federal money.

The ecologist noted that the concept of professional burning is simple: burn the most dangerous materials, primarily dry grass around forests. It would seem that the practice is justified and, at first glance, safe, and in the summer, when the real heat comes, there will be nothing left to burn. Burning is carried out in the spring under the supervision of firefighters.

There are certain fire safety measures that must be observed during such burnings. But in practice, including due to a lack of money, equipment and specialists, these burnings are little different from simple hooligan burning of dry grass, and the fire often escapes into the forests.

The problem is that this is seen by people who begin to believe that burning dry grass is not only possible, but also necessary. Children are even inclined to mindlessly copy the behavior of adults. What's so difficult about taking matches and setting grass on fire? Fire prevention propaganda will not work in this case, and no one will be able to stop the mass arsonist madness. The arsonists themselves may act with good intentions.

When this happens year after year, decade after decade, the vegetation cover of entire regions changes. Burnings and the resulting landscape fires kill young tree growth and some of the adult trees, gradually making forest landscapes more and more open. This means that the territory dries out more and more quickly and evenly, and the wind spreads fire across it more and more freely over vast distances. As a result, fires spread more and more easily every year, and it becomes more difficult to control them.

The expert added that to carry out professional burning in accordance with all safety requirements , 30-40 thousand experienced firefighters are needed in Buryatia and Zabaikalsky Krai alone, and there are not that many of them even in the entire country. Grass burning is often carried out in violation of all recommendations. As a result, burning leads to a large forest fire.

One such incident occurred this spring in the Chita region - 300 hectares of forest burned down. In another episode , the flames engulfed 30 thousand hectares, and the fire was caused by forest firefighting personnel who were burning. In this case, the fire was extinguished from March to the end of April. In these two incidents alone, the area of ​​the fire was almost 10% of the total area of ​​fires since the beginning of the season.

Yaroshenko added that climate change is also contributing to the situation: fire seasons are becoming longer. Droughts and abnormal heat waves are becoming more frequent and their intensity is growing.

But for now, the main cause of fire disasters is not climate change, but rather fire-hazardous economic practices and the fact that the population of these regions has been taught that burning is possible and necessary.

Scorched earth itself poses many threats. Soil processes are disrupted, ash flows into rivers and water bodies, polluting them. Bare terrain deprives forests of natural protection: moisture quickly leaves the soil, air circulation increases, and the wind easily carries debris that can catch fire or cause a fire.

What strategic decisions are needed? Is it enough to simply increase funding for firefighting or does Russia need a fundamentally new policy of adaptation to the new climate reality?

The expert stressed that there is no "one magic way" to defeat landscape fires. A combination of short-term and long-term measures is important.

First of all, it is necessary to cancel, at least formally prohibit and stop funding from the budget fire-hazardous economic practices, especially these very same professional burnings. Without this, it will not be possible to defeat fires in the regions of southern Siberia and the Far East, no matter how much effort and money is spent on this.

Yaroshenko called for the removal of provisions from the legislation that motivate businessmen and landowners to use fire in a dangerous manner. For example, owners are forced to get rid of trees by all possible methods due to large fines imposed for forests growing on agricultural land. The simplest method is to burn young tree growth.

Large fines for not clearing the land of dry grass force this grass to be secretly burned (officially it is forbidden to burn, but it is difficult to get rid of it in any other way, and no one wants to pay fines). Ruinous penalties for poor cleaning of timber harvesting sites force people to burn logging residues when they burn best, that is, when it is dry and warm.

The expert calls for creating more positive incentives for effective fire fighting, and not limiting ourselves to bans, coercion and punishments. For example, subsidies and other support measures for rural communities that can protect themselves from landscape fires.

The ecologist believes that mass fire safety education in children's and educational institutions of various types is important, including its inclusion in the system of advanced training.

But, of course, education will only be effective when the state itself renounces the dangerous use of fire, otherwise it will be perceived as an empty formality that has no relation to real life.

To effectively fight fire, it is necessary to understand the real scale, causes of fire, damage and other parameters. According to the scientist, this requires a unified and truthful accounting system that applies to all types of fires, lands of any property and departmental affiliation. Reliable information will simplify the assessment and verification, and eliminate the possibility of various manipulations.

And yes, it is necessary to increase funding for the forest powers transferred to the regions (let me remind you, by the way, that the first to talk about such a transfer more than two decades ago was the then governor of Zabaikalsky Krai, then still the Chita Region). But if none of the above is done, then no increase in funding will solve the problem of mass forest fires.