Nearly 1,100 Cuban hectares damaged by forest fires in 2021

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 14 (ACN) Nearly 1,100 hectares were damaged by forest fires across Cuba in just over three and a half months, according to the Cuban Forest Ranger Corps (CGC) in an update provided as part of the XXV national campaign against wildfires. The CGC reported 186 events in that period, an average of one per day.

According to the Ministry of the Interior’s National Monitoring Center of the CGC, the province of Artemisa was the worst hit, with 230 hectares affected by 33 fires, as opposed to the Special Municipality of the Isle of Youth (17 and 42).

The most damaged tree species were mahogany, soplillo, sabicú, guao and yarey.

The current crusade of the Forest Ranger Corps will be extended until May 31, first day of the rainy season in Cuba. June marks the start of the hurricane season in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

The number of expected fires is 320, equivalent to an average campaign in terms of intensity and conditioned by the influence of the La Niña-Southern Oscillation event, based on a large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperature in the central and eastern parts of the equatorial Pacific.
According to 2020 statistics, 504 wildfires damaged 5,343.68 hectares, at a rate of 10.60 each.