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CENTRAL
AMERICA |
Fire Destroys 1,500 Hectares
Of Forest In Honduras
TEGUCIGALPA - At least 1,500 hectares of
forest have been destroyed by fire since the
beginning of this year, Honduran Defense
Minister Marlon Pascua said on Tuesday.
After a meeting of the ministers council,
Pascua asked President Porfirio Lobo to
declare a national emergency to call for the
joint efforts of different institutions to
prevent and control forest fires.
At the meeting, Pascua presented a video on
how 2,000 troops of the Honduran armed
forces fought forest fires.
According to the minister, at least 12
forest fires broke out last weekend across
the country, most of them in Olancho
province in northeast Tegucigalpa.
The minister said the Honduran government
will launch a national forest fire
prevention and control campaign with the
coordination of the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environment, the National
Service of Aqueducts and Sewage System, the
Ministry of Public Health, the National
Company of Electrical Power and the media.
In 2009, some 42,000 hectares of forest were
destroyed by 103 forest fires across the
central American country.
Honduras has 5.5 million hectares of forest,
most of them pine forests. However, tens of
thousands of hectares of forest are lost due
to wild fires every year.
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