Who is responsible for the forest fires and what will we leave for our descendants?
Everyone knows about the two misfortunes of Russia. But there is a third one – rapid response organizations that should quickly appear to rescue and solve the problems of those who feed and support them. The police, ambulance, and the MES, alas, are not fast and effective.
Every year, like those notorious men who go to the bathhouse on December 31 in a movie, a wave of forest fires descends on Russia, destroying vast areas.
Yes, China has not yet cut down the whole forest and the territories of Russia's forests are still huge. But every year, the MES pretends to be facing this situation for the first time, like a baby whose memory has not yet developed, or like the city's housing and communal services, who have forgotten to prepare for winter snowfalls yet again.
Over the past 5 years, 9,000 to 112,000 forest fires have been registered in Russia, covering an area of 500,000 to 10 million hectares. And in fact, this number is growing every year.
This year, 4 million hectares have already been burned out, and you know, we have been promised an abnormally hot and dry summer!
Causes of fires in Russia:
- Spontaneous combustion of dead wood and lightning – no more than 20%. Here it is worth considering fires in areas where it is impossible to quickly reach.
- Using forest fires to hide illegal logging in Russia – 15-20%
- "Human factor" - fires caused by hunters and campers in the forests- 65-60%
So, 80% of forest fires are caused by humans. As you can see, these jumps in the numbers and the tendency to increase fires show that the situation is absolutely out of control and depends solely on the "activities" of arsonists. For example, in 2017, there were 489 wildfires and more than 12 thousand "man-made" ones. In 2019, the "man-made" cases were already 13,800 with less than 300 wildfires.
The average annual damage from fires ranged from 10 to 56 billion rubles, the last figure is a 2015 "record". Meanwhile, the value of lost wood – no more than 15% -30% of the damage. The rest – losses from animal deaths, contamination of territories by combustion products, expenses on putting out fire and the subsequent expenses on forest restoration.
Why are fires increasing in Russia?
- The forest protection staff does not match the challenges. Since 2006, it has constantly decreased and is now 6 times lesser- from 70 thousand to 12 thousand people. There are no funds in the budget? No way! For instance, the total number of government officials in Russia has increased from 1.5 million to 2.4 million people in 15 years, "the expenses for the financial motivation of government officials" amounted to more than 200 billion rubles in 2019 (increased by three times), the concomitant costs through public procurement have increased as much as 5 times, because officials do not hesitate: to purchase luxury cars in the garages of administration buildings, to pay for corporate events and recuperate from excessive consumption of food and alcohol in departmental sanatoriums, etc. And all this at the expense of us, the Russians.
There is a great doubt about what benefits government officials bring the country. But for some reason they are fed, watered and clothed at the expense of the people and business. However forest protection is clearly beneficial, and its reduction has led to a sharp reduction in the number of controlled areas. Well, Russia has caught up with Indonesia and Brazil and surpassed them in the number of burned territories, these are countries that are "famous" for their vandalism and connivance with nature. Today, Russia's annual losses are not comparable to the salaries of people who protect forests, and they are much more modest than those of the corrupt "public servants" who work at a desk.
- There is no systematic approach to forest protection, and there is no national strategy for fighting fires. Let's compare the amount of burned territories in Russia, Canada, and the United States; countries with similar natural resources. In 2019, about 10 million hectares (equal to the area of the Volga region and the Far East combined) burned in Russia, in Canada - 1.7 million hectares, in the United States — 1.3 million hectares. That is, in other countries, despite the fact that the area of forests is not inferior to our own, the situation with fires looks much better. The reason— they are taking fires under control: in Canada to a greater extent, in the US to a much lesser extent, but nevertheless. The concept of national security for forest protection includes two main areas:
- Separation of priority territories - residential areas, valuable commercial forests and recreation areas. In these territories, there is strict control of the situation, and also fast and effective work with the growing fires.
- Territories where forests are allowed to burn, but using the experience of previous years, they sharply block the areas leading to the growth of fire and loss of control over fire. As a result, no more than 7% of all forest fires are out of control and the fire area rarely exceeds 200 hectares.
So far, they have not come up with anything better in the area of forest firefighting. But even this one does not exist in Russia.
- There are no proven algorithms or effective mechanisms. Where there is a strategy, there is a tactic. Unfortunately, not in Russia. There is no rapid alert and response system to draw MES personnel to the fire site. Consequently, time is lost. There are no proven procedures for working on a specific area. I mean, it would make sense if the controlled territory could be assessed in terms of risks, "cut" into appropriate parts, it is better to control the more fire-prone part and understand how to manage the situation in case of an emergency.
- If the regional government is not benefiting – it does not put out the fire. A very original decision was adopted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment in 2015. Now it is up to the region to decide whether to put out fire or not. Now they are fighting only those fires that pose an immediate threat to the population and infrastructure. A simple question arises: why would a federal issue be passed on to incompetent and completely disinterested regional officials? This is an outright sabotage.
- The consequence – low fire-extinguishing efficiency. While in Russia, the relevant divisions are being reduced, the firefighting professionals are retiring and going to the afterlife - the knowledge of how to block fires is neither accumulated nor transferred. The experience of counterparts from other countries is not systematically mastered. Eventually, the work is almost "from scratch". As a result, we see disgusting unprofessional work of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the sub-departments.
There are increasingly frequent materials showing that people are forced to put out fires themselves.
https://www.yapfiles.ru/show/2377043/0af3b7125ae14e56f4bcc6277957f294.mp4.html
"And where are you, the MES?!" - another volunteer who is saving his territory from fire asks.
What we have at the moment:
- Unreasonable and imperfect "forest legislation";
- Lack of support for the MES from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the public prosecution service, which would minimize illegal logging and the concomitant "man-made" fires;
- Insufficient staff to control the situation and eliminate forest fires;
- Lack of strategies and proven forest fire management technologies;
- Lack of qualified and motivated personnel – it is not surprising that people do not willingly go into a sphere that is on the verge of survival.
Questions arise: what did Shoygu and his successor do all these years? Why did these statesmen calmly watch the destruction of an important structure for the country? Perhaps geshefts were taking too much time?
As you understand, all this also happened with the connivance of Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev, who led the country into a far-from-bright future for 20 years.
Our country is definitely not afraid of an external threat. Even the Chinese entrepreneurs who cut down our forests for next to nothing are unable to harm the country more than our "elite".
We love experiments. Let's leave Mr. Putin to rule the country and see who will destroy the forests faster- the appetites of the Chinese or his glorious reign.
https://www.interfax.ru/russia/707800
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ЛесныепожарывСибири(2019)
https://ria.ru/20190923/1558989134.html
https://www.rbc.ru/economics/20/09/2018/5ba252cc9a7947bdad76e3fe
https://aif.ru/money/economy/ushcherb_ot_lesnyh_pozharov_v_rossii_za_poslednie_pyat_let