Through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Birf), the province of Córdoba received more than one billion pesos that will be used “to strengthen the resilience of the agro-industrial system, reducing the vulnerability and exposure of producers to climate and market risks.” . As indicated by the provincial government, the resources will have the main objective of “preventing and controlling” rural and forest fires.
The management before the Birf was carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Córdoba.
The project valued at an amount of 5,200,000 dollars (today 1,034,800,000 pesos) will be executed within a year by the Undersecretary of Agricultural Infrastructure, together with the Secretariat of Climate Risk Management, Catastrophes and Civil Protection of the Province .
Among the works and actions, it plans to improve 90 kilometers of steps (accesses and roads) for the mobilization of firefighters and build four more runways for fire hydrants in areas of difficult access in the northwest area of the provincial map: Guasapampa, Pocho, Fibra de Palma and Piedra Blanca, in addition to installing four 300,000-liter Australian tanks and two mobile fuel tanks at those points.
The scheme would be similar to the one that is arranged in other tracks created with a similar object in various regions.
The managed resources will also serve -according to the Government- “to install three nurseries for the production of native species, two of them with a Germplasm Bank.”
At the same time, training modules for agricultural producers will be created. “More than 100 million pesos, almost 10% of the amount, will be allocated to courses and drills with producers in the areas with the highest risk of forest and rural fires,” explained Franco Mugnaini, coordinator of the Córdoba Executing Unit.
The project will be carried out on 30 percent of the provincial territory (some 5 million hectares), benefiting more than 7,000 agricultural and livestock firms located in fire risk areas.
For more than a year, the agricultural portfolio managed the funds given the difficult forecast of forest fires and the need to strengthen the brigade and fire brigade teams, as well as the need to emphasize prevention work.
domes with cameras
In another order, in a process separate from that project, the Province has been negotiating with the National Secretary of the Environment for the transfer of five domes with special cameras for long-distance smoke detection, to improve the fire alert system.
This system has already been installed by Environment of the Nation in some areas of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos with frequent fires and Córdoba aspires to add them also in its highest risk regions (the Sierras and the provincial northwest).
Three years with a lot of fire
Córdoba comes from three very complex years in terms of fires. Between 2020, 2021 and 2022, characterized by rainfall levels below the historical average, almost 500,000 hectares were burned, according to official data from the Provincial Fire Management Plan.
In this sense, if the last 20 years are contemplated, the total burned amounts to almost 1.6 million hectares, 10% of the total area of the province.
In 2022, the fires affected 81,500 hectares throughout the province, according to official records released days ago by the Risk Management Secretariat. This measurement does not contemplate foci of less than 10 hectares.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Volunteer Firefighters of Córdoba, which brings together 90% of the barracks, carried out its own survey that calculated a much larger area affected by 2022 (174,000 hectares), considering all the outbreaks.
