Forest fires continued this Tuesday consuming large areas field in northern Corrientes, despite the tireless work of some 450 brigade members sent to the region, including in tourist areas of the Iberá Wetlands, official sources reported.
Currently, the area most affected by the fires in Corrientes is the north, in the departments of Ituzaingó, San Miguel and Santo Toméwhere there are 450 brigade members both local and from other provinces and the Nation, according to Governor Gustavo Valdés.
Another important igneous focus is located in front of the Rincón del Socorro ranch, in the vicinity of the Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, one of the tourist spots of the Esteros del Iberá.
The fire crossed 40 percent of the surface of the Iberá National Park rewilding
According to local sources, on February 20 at night lightning caused a fire disaster which lasted until this Tuesday at a distance of 30 kilometers from the town’s urban area.
Agents from the Iberá Provincial and National Parks, as well as from the Rewilding Argentina Foundation, which develops a reintroduction program for native species that have become extinct, attended that fire.
Firefighters and brigade members from several provinces and other access portals to Iberá also attended this sector until this morning to fight the fire, coordinated by the Crisis Committee in which the Nation and the Province coordinate actions.
As a consequence of these active outbreaks, the trails of the Iberá National Park were closed since all the personnel are dedicated to fighting the flames, while in the Provincial Reserve the pedestrian trails were closed as a precaution.
According to Rewilding, the fire crossed 40 percent of the surface of the Iberá National Parka total of 74,000 hectares, “which correspond to wetlands, grasslands and unique forests of their kind due to their biodiversity”.
There, this Tuesday the flames that affected the Cambyretá portal, in the department of Ituzaingó, were controlled.
Meanwhile, a report from the Faculty of Agronomy of the UBA stated that the current called “The girl“, to whom specialists attribute the persistence of the drought in the Coast that favors the fires, “will remain installed and will not diminish its effect as expected“, and highlights that a “return to neutrality is forecast only for April”.
In this context, more than 70 legal cases were initiated in different locations of the province of Corrientes due to complaints of allegedly intentional rural fires, detailed this Tuesday a report from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the province.
Most of the complaints were concentrated in the areas most affected by the fire, such as the towns of Santo Tomé and Ituzaingó, and also in the south, where the judicial heads are Esquina and Goya.
In the framework of the emergency that the province is going through, the president Alberto Fernández said on Tuesday that Corrientes has the “absolute support” of the national government and stated that there is a need to “improve the coordination of the National Fire Management Service.”
The head of state met with the national senator for Corrientes Mauricio “Camau” Espínolawho, according to Fernández himself through his Twitter account, “with great concern” “requested support for small and small agricultural and livestock producers, and for the promoters of afforestation in the province.”
I received @espinolacamau, national senator for Corrientes. With great concern, he asked me for support for small and small agricultural and livestock producers, and for promoters of afforestation in the province. pic.twitter.com/57k9nLXyaU
– Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) February 22, 2022
In this sense, the Government of Corrientes announced on Tuesday the distribution of non-reimbursable contributions for agricultural producers affected by the fires for which 2,800 million pesos will be allocated.
At the same time, the provincial executive decreed the tax exemption for the entire period 2022 to taxpayers with agricultural activity affected by rural fires and drought.
Due to the drought and the fires that have already affected more than 785,000 hectares, almost 10% of the provincial territory, the different productive sectors were seriously affected and it is estimated that the losses exceed 26,000 million pesos.
Among the productive activities most affected by the fires are forestry, rice, livestock, beekeeping and citrus, among others, which suffer millionaire losses.
Regarding the productive emergency generated by the fires in the province, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Nation, Julian DominguezHe assured this Tuesday that will create in the long term “a disorder in all Argentine livestock” since 35 percent of the country’s cattle are found in districts severely affected by the drought.
And in turn, the Foreign Ministry requested, through the Argentine Embassy to the European Union (EU), the activation of the European civil protection mechanism, which will coordinate the voluntary contributions that the members of the bloc make to help control the fires registered in Currents.
In the face of the environmental emergency in the province of Corrientes, the State is present.
This is the deployment arranged by the national government ?#ArgentinaWithCurrents pic.twitter.com/llLDWeJi4P
– Pink House (@CasaRosada) February 22, 2022
Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, faced international aid efforts before the official representations of Russia, the United States, France and Chile, according to what the deputy minister of the environmental portfolio, Sergio Federovisky, told Telam.
