Europe is highly threatened by forest fires and thousands of hectares of forests burn annually. This was explained to BNT by Assoc. Prof. Georgi Kostov, a forester, scientist and former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.
„The topic is important not only for Bulgaria, but also for Europe. Data from the European Court of Auditors show that over 350 thousand hectares of forest area burn annually, and according to data from scientists at the Constructive Council of the European Academies, they are over 500 thousand - that is, half a million hectares. This is twice the area of Luxembourg“, explained scientist Assoc. Prof. Georgi Kostov.
Assoc. Prof. Kostov explained that there are several reasons. First of all, there is climate change and the great drying up of forests.
„On the other hand, there is a lack of preparedness of the population. Europe is the continent that is much more at risk from forest fires than Asia or North America“, the forester explained.
He commented that there must be a change in people's way of thinking, in the education of young people. The scientist emphasized that the population must be prepared.
„Let us be aware that the situation can easily be let out, as yesterday in Bulgarovo. Second - let people be aware that they must take important, individual, preventive measures. For example, not to abandon their properties overgrown with grass“, pointed out Assoc. Prof. Georgi Kostov.
He gave Portugal a good rating because it already gives much more funds for fire prevention, rather than for extinguishing them.
According to him, the condition of the forests in Bulgaria is not good.
"In our forests there is a lot of dead and drying wood accumulated, which is burning biomass. In the words of an Australian forester and professor, these green policies of Europe, we must do conservation on everything, preserve lots and lots of areas for biodiversity, without the necessary prevention, are in fact policies for the annihilation of the forests. And I say this with conviction, I don't want to scare the viewers, but especially the forests in the lower forest belt - up to about 600 meters, 700 meters above sea level, where it is the hottest and driest, especially in Southern Bulgaria, these are about half of the forests in Bulgaria. They will somehow disappear in the next 20 years and must be replaced with young forests, with young plantations. This disappearance can be controlled with forestry practices, the other way is for it to disappear, as we see it now - spontaneously.
Eng. Petar Dishkov - forester and expert at the branch chamber of the woodworking and furniture industry, also agreed with Assoc. Prof. Kostov's statements:
„Our forests, especially in the lower parts, are permanently outdated. We need to rejuvenate them, renew them, if we want to have forests... Active management includes various forestry activities - different types of felling, but not cutting down the forests," said Eng. Dishkov.