United Nations warns of increasing 'mega-fires'

A pillar of fire in a pine forest in Santo Tome, Corrientes province, Argentina, February 20, 2022. Fires continue to ravage the province which have already destroyed more than half a million hectares.

AP - Rodrigo Abd

Text by: Claire Fages Follow

3 mins

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which is due to meet for a summit in Nairobi next week, estimates that "mega-fires" will increase by 50% by the end of the century as states are not prepared to deal with it.  

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Northern Argentina ravaged by fires is one of the latest examples of these spectacular fires that have covered thousands of hectares in recent years.

Dantesque images of fires in

, Australia, Indonesia, Portugal are in everyone's mind.

According to experts from the United Nations Environment Program, these mega-fires will multiply in the decades to come, with an increase of 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050. They will be half more numerous at the end of the century.   

Their geography also extends, no continent is spared except Antarctica.

The mega-fires rage where we did not know them: in the Amazon, in northern India, in northern

and even in the Arctic.  

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What are the causes ?

At the origin of the multiplication of these 

 : the warming of the climate which leads to periods of increased drought, in particular during episodes of Nino, the fires start more easily;

and land use change.

A striking example: that of the Tonlé Sap region in Cambodia.

By dint of taking water from the lake to irrigate the rice fields, the banks have dried up for several kilometers when they were wetlands that protected fires.

As the crops gain ground, the fires multiply.  

The consequences are dramatic for biodiversity, human health and the economy.

Destruction of property and infrastructure: in the United States alone, the annual bill for fires is estimated at between 71 billion and 350 billion dollars.

Not to mention the inestimable losses: the pure and simple disappearance of certain species in the fires, the consequences on the respiratory and nervous health of humans who suffer from the toxic fumes, and the release of additional tons of greenhouse gases which warm a little more the climate.  

More than half of firefighting expenditure is devoted to extinguishing fires, and less than 1% to prevention.

For UNEP experts, the opposite should be done.

Putting two-thirds of this money into prevention to protect wetlands, peat bogs... Involve communities in protecting these spaces.

Develop industrial plantations, which are often made up of non-local species, so that they do not become fuel at the slightest outbreak of fire.

And of course to fight globally against global warming.  

Paradoxical situation in Africa

The

in this table is quite paradoxical.

With more than 4 million km2 of area burned every year, it is the continent that concentrates two-thirds of the planet's fires, and the most fires per square kilometre.

But most of them are small fires controlled by man, as they are practiced at the beginning of the dry season in West Africa to open up savannah spaces, precisely in order to avoid larger fires by continued.

However, for 20 years, we have observed a 25% reduction in these fires, because there is less vegetation and therefore less fuel for these fires.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a risk of mega-fires in the future during heat waves, UNEP experts warn.

For its part, Greenpeace Africa calls on the governments of the continent to cooperate to prevent these fires, as the countries of SADC, the Southern African Development Community, are already doing.

It is at the level of the Central African Forest Commission, believes the NGO, that the authorities should draw inspiration from traditional African burning methods to avoid larger and more devastating fires. 

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