DENR, BFP to combat forest fire incidents

MANILA – Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) field officers have been ordered to review existing forest fire prevention measures due to increasing incidents of man-made forest fires during the dry season.

As national case trends of Covid-19 continue to decline, the easing of restrictions on movements of people in many parts of the country is also likely, according to a DENR news release on Saturday.

Based on the record of the DENR-Forest Management Bureau, forest fire incidents went down to 429 in 2020 from 1,282 in 2019, attributed to lockdown measures.

DENR and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) have been conducting cluster trainings for DENR’s field personnel and implementers on the various aspects, technicalities, and principles of forest fire.

The BFP-trained DENR field personnel conduct forest fire preparedness and response trainings with DENR-engaged upland communities in its various programs, particularly those covered by the Expanded National Greening Program (ENGP) within their areas of responsibility.

“Forest fires are mostly fueled by human activities, making it imperative for us to recalibrate our response readiness and forest fire prediction alertness to pre-pandemic levels, which calls for tighter coordination with people’s organizations and family beneficiaries of the National Greening Program,” DENR Acting Secretary Jim Sampulna said in a statement.

“The field offices and communities are considered our front liners in combating forest fires. The first line of defense against forest fire is to avoid starting a fire,” Sampulna added.

Man-made forest fire is usually an offshoot of kaingin or slash and burn farming, smoking of honeycombs to gather honey, cigarette butts, and other forms of activities that involve fire.

In 2020, 389 of the 429 outbreaks occurred in plantation sites under the ENGP, covering 7,830 hectares valued at P119.3 million.

Forty outbreaks occurred in natural forests, or forestlands populated with naturally growing indigenous trees, where some 1,278 hectares were affected with estimated damages of P4.27 million.

In 2019, a total of 1,282 outbreaks were reported (1,205 in ENGP sites; 77 in natural forests), affecting 24,091 hectares (22,3723 hectares in ENGP sites; 1,719 hectares in natural forests), with a damage cost of PHP417.9 million (PHP396 million in ENGP sites; PHP22.2 million in natural forests).

BFP Director Louie Puracan underscored the pivotal role of DENR-partner communities in forest fire prevention and detection, saying the preparedness of field officers and partner-communities “gives them precious lead time to respond accordingly” to a forest fire outbreak.

“A protocol is already in place for the BFP, including other appropriate agencies such as the DENR and the concerned disaster risk and reduction management council to respond,” Puracan said.

The BFP was created by virtue of Republic Act 6975, otherwise known as the Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990, which mandates the agency to be responsible for the prevention and suppression of all destructive fires including forest fires, among others. (PR)