2023-08-29 03:45:42
As a way of attracting the attention of the provincial governments and the Nation, Activists from the Greenpeace organization hung themselves this Monday from the bridge that crosses the La Angostura streamwhich joins the Nahuel Huapi and Moreno lakes in Bariloche. There, they unfurled a 20-meter-long banner with the message “Forest fires: No more impunity.”
The environmental organization warned that in the last decade, lForest fires devastated almost 80,000 hectares in Argentine Patagonia and called on citizens to vote on a Popular Consultation on whether it is necessary to penalize those responsible for forest fires and illegal clearing.
However, The Penal Code already punishes anyone who causes a forest fire with a prison term of 3 to 10 years. While for the one who causes a fire through imprudence or negligence, the Penal Code provides for a prison sentence ranging from one month to one year.
“If the guilty act or omission puts a person in danger of death or causes the death of a person, the maximum sentence may be raised up to five years,” Article 189 of the Penal Code establishes.
“Andean Patagonian forests are increasingly threatened by arsoneither due to negligence or intentionally,” Greenpeace warned in a statement released on Monday.
“Every year the situation worsens with the climate crisis, the drought and the pine plantations. We must act accordingly and prepare for increasingly complex scenarios, preventing, but also punishing those responsible for this ecocide,” said Hernán Giardini, coordinator of Greenpeace’s Forests campaign.
Human activity, highly responsible
According to data from the National Ministry of the Environment, In the last 10 years, fires have destroyed 78,028 hectares in the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Tierra del Fuego.an area similar to almost 4 times the city of Buenos Aires.
In the statement that Greenpeace released this Monday, they highlighted that official organizations estimate that “95% of forest fires are caused by human activitiesbeing within these the main scenarios bonfires and poorly extinguished cigarette butts, the abandonment of land, the preparation of grazing areas with fire”.
“Climatic factors such as the lack of rainfall, high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds affect its spread”, they highlighted.
They raised that Provincial governments “should increase the number of brigade members, improve their working conditions and the infrastructure to control and combat fires, and ensure the regeneration of forests devastated by fire”.
“Besides, It is important that citizens express themselves on whether they consider that those responsible should go to jail,” Giardini pointed out.
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