Sundaymail Editor
Sunday Mail Reporter
More than 570 000 hectares of forests and grasslands have been destroyed in about 2 000 incidents of veld fires that have also killed a man and destroyed property worth thousands of dollars this year.
Since July, the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has penalised 63 individuals for fire-related offences, while eight other cases have been referred to the police.
The offenders were fined $50 000 each.
A man was killed in a fire in Banket, Mashonaland West province. This was the only wildfire-related fatality recorded this year.
EMA spokesperson Ms Amkela Sidange said: “Since the onset of fire restrictions on July 31, the country has recorded 2 027 veld fire incidents that have destroyed 571 000 hectares of land.”
“Of interest, one veld fire incident in Hwange resulted in the loss of over 84 000 hectares, which was quite huge.
“If you are to compare with the corresponding period in 2021, the country has recorded a 26,3 percent increase in the number of veld fires.”
The amount of land lost to wild fires, she said, increased by 18,1 percent.
“However, we have noted that there has been a huge decrease in the average area burnt per fire incident, whereby last year the average area burnt was 238 hectares per incident and this year it is 223 hectares per incident.”
This, she said, was a result of rapid response by communities to put out fires.
EMA extinguished two transboundary veld fires. In one case, the fire was spreading towards Gonarezhou National Park from Mozambique, while in the other case, the fire was spreading towards the Matetsi Safari from Botswana.
“Most of these fires are associated with hunting and land clearing,” said Ms Sidange.
“As an agency, we will continue monitoring the fires during this period.”
Last year, around 408 000 hectares were destroyed by wild fires, up from 220 000 the previous year.
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