This week, following the start of legislative activity, the importance of the urgency given by the Executive to the Fire Law project returned.
It gained special relevance following the fires in Viña del Mar. In this context, Esteban Valenzuela, Minister of Agriculture explained some aspects of the Fire Law project. “Simply put, there are three structural things. The mandatory firewalls, for small, large and medium-sized ones. We committed, because the parliamentarians asked for it, that with an affinity we will seek to help the little ones. But there has to be responsibility. You cannot have the forest with long grass, leaving all the prunings there. There must be firewall areas where appropriate according to Conaf “It determines it.”
The head of the Agriculture portfolio also explained that, with respect to the private sector, “a fine of 1 to 3,000 Monthly Tax Units (UTM) can be imposed.” And if they insist on not doing the work, Conaf and/or the municipality will be able to enter, and the bill will be sent to the owner). In the event that they are factors of a large fire, not having complied with this, the fine can reach 10,000 UTM”.
“And finally, the concept of buffer zones is generated. And there comes something very extraordinary in the law. And there is a farm that accepted an article that people who are in 701, which were exclusively forest lands, can transition to something mixed. In that they have living pastures, agriculture, also parts of these firebreak areas. And they don’t have to pay for that, or the interest penalties, for not having it 100% forestry. We have to go to that more resilient landscape, which is the abandoned one, and that in many areas there may be more mix where there is agriculture and fewer fires. Living agriculture, not abandoned agricultural land,” said Esteban Valenzuela.
Guilds
Juan José Ugarte, president of the Chilean Wood Corporation (Corma) expressed regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the Fire Law project that “when we talk regarding a recurring activity of between 6 thousand and 7 thousand fires a year in the country, with regarding 99% of human origin, clearly we must do something different to avoid repeating tragedies like those we have recently experienced (Viña del Mar) and we must advance in a modern, effective and well-oriented legal model, we believe that it can help prevent, “fight effectively and have effective intelligence to anticipate the fires and pursue those responsible along with recovering the burned forest that leaves a trail of poverty and marginality to the territories.”
“It seems to us that the project presented by Executive is moving in the right direction, but it remains halfway, it is very incomplete. “If this law had been approved, it would have prevented us from the tragedy of Viña del Mar,” he added.
In the view of the president of Corma, what is missing in the new fire regulations is having four pillars. “First, strengthen prevention that has to do with the interface between the rural and urban world as proposed by the project but also and very importantly, have organized local communities, empower mayors and governors to direct the communities in terms of preparing everything the year so as not to generate conditions conducive to the spread of fires.”
The second thing, said Juan José Ugarte, “is to have a preventive climate deployment, because rural and forest fires are not a forest phenomenon and we already know the occurrence is of human origin, but the spread has to do with climate events that we can anticipate. when there is a greater risk of spread and we know that having those days in advance, a preventive deployment, that is, having the Armed Forces or Carabineros in the areas of greatest risk and intentionality, having industries paralyzed and deploying their workers by the territories, to have containment for negligent fires, for accidents and also for intentionality. “You must also consider preventing the occurrence of fires due to electrical accidents, so prevention is a fundamental chapter that is partially taken up in the Executive’s fire bill, but not in a comprehensive manner.”
Another relevant point for Corma’s representative has to do with combat. “There is enough evidence regarding strengthening night combat. 30% of fires in Chile start at night and we have less than 10% of brigades for those periods when it is much more effective, due to lower temperatures and because there is no wind and high humidity where night air combat must be added. Today there is technology and skilled pilots where the same ones who come to Chile and have fought at night in the north might do so in the south if the law authorized them. In addition, the brigade members must be transformed into a professional activity throughout the year, which is not a seasonal job,” stated the boss of the logging union.
Investigation
Research is another pillar that the president of Corma highlighted. “As demonstrated in the Wood Theft Law, in 18 months wood theft was reduced by 82%, it was mainly because powers were given to judges, police and prosecutors (…) We have cameras with thermal sensors that operate 24 hours a day. and 7 days a week, unmanned flights with high-quality images, therefore, providing the police and the prosecutor’s office with more tools to pursue crimes is another very important point in which the law says nothing.”
Small and medium owner
In the vision of the national logging union, the bill proposed by the Executive, “rather sanctions the small and medium-sized owner, obliging him with his own resources, charged to his own assets, to carry out maintenance works and maintain them in perpetuity, without giving them “No help in the anticipation work and, even less, there is no mention of how to recover the forest following the fire.”
“We cannot have a fire law that continues without looking at the more than 24 thousand plantation owners and more than 90 thousand native forest owners who are seriously damaged by human action,” said Ugarte.
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