Fires Damage 5,000 Ha of Forests in Vietnam

At least 5,000 hectare (ha) of forests have been damaged by forest fires in the first three months of this year's dry season, according to a report of Vietnam's official news agency VNA on Tuesday.

As many as 256 forest fires (excluding the fires in U Minh Thuong national park) occurred nationwide in the past three months,destroying 2,559 ha of forests, VNA quoted Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Nguyen Van Dang as sayingon Monday.

The fires in Kien Giang province's U Minh Thuong alone had by last Sunday ruined about 3,000 ha of primeval forests.

More than 1,000 fire fighters have basically controlled the wildfire, VNA said.

However, the MARD official said the threat for forest fires remains high because of a prolonged drought which has hit central highlands and southern provinces over the last month.

Forest fires have repeatedly occurred in southern provinces in late March and early April. Worthy of note was a forest fire in AnGiang province on March 28 which damaged 3,000 ha of cajeput forests.

By April 5, nearly 207,300 ha of cultivated land and more than 1.5 million people in nine provinces nationwide were suffering from a shortage of water.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2002)