United Nations Team to Help Fight Amazon Fires
3/25/98
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: United Nations Team to Help Fight Amazon Fires
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 3/25/98
Byline: Tracey Ober
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 25 (Reuters) - Fires raged on in Brazil's northern
Amazon on Wednesday as the United Nations prepared to send an emergency team of
firefighting experts to help rescue the endangered rainforest, officials said.
The U.N. said it planned to send two specialists in forest fires, a geological
expert and a forest biologist to the burning jungle and savannah in Roraima
state as soon as Brazil's Environment Institute (IBAMA) endorses the plan.
Brazil formally accepted the offer of international aid on Tuesday, but still
had to approve specific terms.
``A disaster assessment team is ready to come,'' a U.N. spokeswoman in Brasilia
said. ``We just have to get IBAMA's approval of the nature of the services
and we can set a date.'' She said the team would be similar to a U.N. team sent
to Indonesia last year when bush fires cast a choking haze across large areas
of southeast Asia.
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso summoned ministers to a meeting
on Thursday to discuss the crisis, a spokesman said.
``The president is following closely and daily the development of the fires in
the Amazon,'' said Sergio Amaral.
``The government believes that some countries may have better technology and
are more efficient at fighting tropical forest fires. All international help,
coordinated by the Brazilian government, will be welcome,'' he added.
The Amazon's worst fires in recent memory have burned out of control since
January. Officials blame subsistence farmers who ignored warnings not to use
their traditional slash-and-burn techniques amid a drought linked to the El
Nino weather phenomenon.
Flames continued to blaze in thick rainforest on Wednesday extending to the
border with Venezuela.
Venezuelan officials were keeping a tense watch on the rapid approach of the
fire, but said rivers at the border with Brazil should keep it under control.
``It should not reach Venezuela, because it will be held back by the Branco
river on the east side and by the Uraricoera river to the north,'' Jose Garcia,
director of Venezuela's disaster relief agency for the Bolivar state, said.
About 800 firefighters from Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela are working to
control the blaze, which has destroyed vast swathes of savannah in Roraima and
pushed into rainforest normally too humid to burn.
``The situation is dramatic. If we combine the focus of the flames on the
border with Venezuela with the south of the state, it's a 250-mile (400-km)
imaginary line of fire,'' Roraima governor Neudo Campos said.
He said Brasilia had been slow to react to the crisis and delays in sending
crucial equipment and manpower to the region had allowed the fires to build
into a full-scale disaster.
Campos said Roraima was seriously under-equipped and its firefighters were
trained to combat only urban fires.
Estimates of how much land has burned or is at risk from the fires range from
2,300 square miles (6,000 sq kms) to nearly 11,500 square miles (30,000 sq
kms), an area roughly the size of Belgium.
Environmentalists, who have been urging Brazil to step up its firefighting and
prevention efforts, welcomed the arrival of U.N. help and called for further
international support.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited Republication and
redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior
written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or
delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.