Balkan Vital Graphics

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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.

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