Under the motto Would you burn down your own home? Avoid plant mass fires! The Ministry of the Environment launches the 2023 Plant Mass Fire Prevention Campaign (IMAVE).
Within its fire management program, Mi Ambiente executes policies for the protection of natural resources, before the beginning of next year, for which it launches the campaign at the national level through equipment, training, community awareness, inter-institutional coordination and with civil society in general to minimize the incidence of plant mass fires (IMAVES) in our country.
In Panama, in the last decade (2012-2022), 16,099.0 plant mass fires have been registered, affecting a total area of 229,528.69 hectares, which includes intervened primary forest vegetation, secondary forest, stubble, mangrove forest, planted forests, low floodable vegetation, grasses, established agricultural crops and pastures.
The effects of plant mass fires (IMAVES) are not problems for future generations, because their repercussions are immediate, given that today we are feeling their consequences.
The cause of most plant mass fires (IMAVE) must be found fundamentally in the cultural use of fire in rural areas (burning of pastures and stubble, clearing of plots) and, to a lesser extent, negligence (bad butts). fires, barbecues, etc.), infrastructures (power lines, landfills), accidents (forestry and agricultural machinery, military maneuvers) and others (arsonists, revenge, hunting, etc.), which leads us to infer that 90% of fires are caused by human actions.
For all of the above, we urge you to join this campaign to prevent fires in plant masses (IMAVES 2023), from January to June 2023, and therefore we invite you to become guardians of our environment, because it is everyone’s job to avoid them
