The weather helped fight the fire – Newspaper Kommersant No. 212 (7413) dated 11/16/2022

In 2022, the area of ​​forest fires in Russia decreased by almost three times compared to last year, amounting to 3.5 million hectares. This was stated by the head of Rosleskhoz Ivan Sovetnikov. Khabarovsk Krai, Komi, KhMAO, as well as Kurgan and Ryazan regions suffered the most from forest fires this year, according to the department.

Rosleskhoz has reported a significant reduction in forest fires in Russia. Thus, in 2022, the area covered by fire since the beginning of the year amounted to 3.5 million hectares, which is almost three times less than last year (10.1 million hectares). The number of fires has also decreased. If in 2021 15.1 thousand forest fires were recorded, then in 2022 there were 1.2 times less – 12.5 thousand.

By words the head of Rosleskhoz Ivan Sovetnikov, this happened, in particular, due to the fact that fires began to be detected faster. “Any forest fire detected in the first minute can be put out with one bucket of water. The later we find it, the more difficult it is to put out,” he said.

Thus, the efficiency of extinguishing forest fires this year has increased: 79% of the outbreaks were eliminated on the first day from the moment of detection (76% in 2021). The average area of ​​one forest fire in Russia decreased by 2.2 times and amounted to 165 hectares.

Also this year, funding for fighting fires from the federal center has more than doubled: from 6 billion rubles. in 2021 to 14.2 billion rubles – in the current.

According to Rosleskhoz, five Russian regions suffered the most from forest fires in 2022. A third of the entire “all-Russian area” for fires was given by the Khabarovsk Territory – there were 545 forest fires on 1.1 million hectares. “An extremely remote area was burning,” Ivan Sovetnikov explained. “Due to the difficult terrain, we could not reach it.” Also among the “outsiders” are the Kurgan region (446 fires per 123.7 thousand hectares), Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (442 fires per 420.3 thousand hectares), Komi (445 fires per 58.3 thousand hectares) and Ryazan region (52 fires on 32.5 thousand hectares).

RecallEarlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to reduce burnouts by 50% by 2030. Following this instruction, the Ministry of Natural Resources developed indicators for the annual reduction in the area of ​​forest fires for all regions of the country.

According to the plans of officials, the 12 most “burning” subjects, including Yakutia, Buryatia, Chukotka, the Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk Territories, as well as the Irkutsk and Amur Regions, should reduce the area covered by fire to half in five years, and all the rest – by 2030.

Indicators of the annual reduction in the areas of forest fires will be used in assessing the performance of governors. The government approved the document in August.

WWF Russia expert Konstantin Kobyakov confirms that this year the area of ​​fires is much smaller than in the past. Thus, according to the latest data from the Information System of the State Remote Monitoring of Forest Fires (ISDM-Rosleskhoz; data from satellites are used), since the beginning of the year, the fire has covered almost 9 million hectares. In 2021, as of this date, the figure was 18.7 million hectares. “To some extent, we were lucky with the weather,” the ecologist believes. “In Siberia and the Far East, which usually gave the largest areas of fires in past years, there were no large-scale periods of drought. When fires do not occur so often, the efficiency of fire fighting increases exponentially. These two factors have given such an effect on the reduction of areas.

Anna Vasilyeva