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T<\/SPAN>he Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Jaime David Fern\u00e1ndez Mirabal, affirmed that starting forest fires is a criminal act. He was speaking at a gathering where the ministry was distributing educational materials about forest fires, a more frequent occurrence during the month of February. <\/P> \u201cForest fires are a form of ecocide which produces serious damage to nature and destroys the environmental legacy for future generations…” <\/P> \u201cForest fires are a form of ecocide which produces serious damage to nature and destroys the environmental legacy for future generations. They must be seen as a national concern. We see today how developed countries like the United States have been affected by fires when we look at what has recently happened in California and Australia,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez Mirabal. <\/P> Andr\u00e9s Chalas, Environmental Attorney General, added that those responsible for forest fires \u201cwill face the authorities and be punished to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d He added that the Penal Code, Article 434 establishes that those convicted of this type of crime can face up to ten years in prison and fines from RD$1,000 up to RD$10,000. <\/P> Forest Fire Fighters<\/STRONG> <\/P> The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARENA), responsible for the protection of the country\u2019s natural resources, coordinates with public, private and international organizations in carrying out the forest fire prevention and contingent plans. Part of their plan includes sending out messages to the population on the dangers and consequences of forest fires. <\/P> At the moment there are some 500 forest fire fighters who were supported this year by 2,000 members of the Quisqueya Verde Brigade and trained members of the Army. <\/P> According to SEMARENA\u2019s statistics, in the last six years forest fires affected close to a million acres of covered forest, parts of which are protected areas, affecting the flora and fauna. <\/P> March is the worse month for forest fires with an average of more than 30 in the past ten years. This period coincides with the least amount of rainfall when farmers and cattle ranchers take advantage of the time to prepare their land and improve grazing pasture for their cattle. <\/P> The second most dangerous time for forest fires is from June to September. During both of these periods, precipitation does not exceed a thousand millimeters, a monthly average, and the average monthly temperature oscillates between 20 and 34 degrees centigrade. <\/P> The zones with the highest incidence of forest fires are: <\/P> Those present at the activity included the Deputy Secretaries of Forest Reserves and Protected Areas, Bernab\u00e9 Ma\u00f1\u00f3n and Eleuterio Mart\u00ednez; the Captain of the National District Fire Fighters, Guillermo Garc\u00eda; Yoni Rodr\u00edguez, Director of Protection and Management SEMARENA; Ger\u00f3nimo Abreu, Head of the Forest Fires Program; Jos\u00e9 Manuel Mateo, Director of the Protected Areas and Maximino Herrera, National Coordinator of the Forest Fire Prevention Project. <\/P> <\/P><\/TD><\/TR> Environment Ministry Undertakes Education Campaign on Forest Fire Prevention The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Jaime David Fern\u00e1ndez Mirabal, affirmed that starting forest fires is a criminal act. He was speaking at a gathering where the ministry was distributing educational materials about forest fires, a more frequent occurrence during the month of February. \u201cForest … Continue reading “Environment Ministry Undertakes Education Campaign on Forest Fire Prevention”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-noticias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nDate of Publication: February 25, 2009 <\/TD><\/TR><\/TBODY><\/TABLE><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"