News Analysis: Good news, bad news on Italy's path to fight forest fires

Like every year in the summer period, the Italian peninsula is hit by a number of blazes, mostly human induced, that cause serious damage to the environment and economy. How are local authorities facing the problem and what has been the trend in recent years?

The 2015 season has started with fires in eastern Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian Western coast, fueled by an intense heat wave. Some areas were evacuated, and all local fire and rescue services were deployed to fight the blazes.

The good news is that the trend has been downwards in the past two years, with the number of blazes and affected hectares reaching the all-time low.

Around 3,250 forest fires were registered in 2014 which hit slightly more than 35,000 hectares, against an annual average of around 6,900 forest fires and nearly 80,000 affected hectares over the 2000-2012 period, Xinhua learnt from Italy's State Forestry Corps.

"These are very different figures compared to some peaks reached in the past. In particular, 2007 was among the worst years, with as many as 227,000 hectares affected by forest fires," Daniela Piccoli, director of civil protection and public aid department at the State Forestry Corps, noted.

The bad news is that too many hectares of forests and grazing lands are still burning each year. The State Forestry Corps has estimated at some 25 euros (about 27 U.S. dollars) the cost that each Italian citizen, including infants, has to pay every year for his or her country's fight against forest fires.

Piccoli explained to Xinhua that the State Forestry Corps' action is focused on the three phases of "prevention, fighting and investigating."

Prevention activities include cleaning of forest lands around roads and power lines, sign and warning notice board as well as public education such as fire prevention training in schools. For example, not everybody knows that he or she could start a fire just by driving over or parking on dry grass, Piccoli went on saying.

Fighting is carried out both at the regional level, based on a 2000 law which requires regional authorities to carry out programs related to fire prediction, prevention and control, and supported at the national level "with the aim to stop flames even before they become blazes," she pointed out.

Finally an investigation is carried out by the State Forestry Corps to ascertain the causes of the fires, around half of which are driven by private interests and are criminally liable, Piccoli told Xinhua. Voluntary teams also play a fundamental role, she added, by providing active support to the public fight against blazes.

For example, Fare Ambiente (Make Environment) is an environmental movement that started as an initiative by a group of university professors, experts in environmental policy together with many young people, professionals and ordinary citizens who decided to combine forces to help environment protection.

"We have organized a group of volunteers to fight arsonists and promote environmental protection," Vincenzo Pepe, the founder and president of the movement, and a professor of Italian environment law at the Second University of Naples (SUN), told Xinhua. Fare Ambiente also publishes a manual every year which gives instructions to citizens about the things to do when they see a forest fire.

Pepe agreed that blazes have significantly decreased over the past few years, but was not optimistic about the current season, which so far has seen growing fires, especially malicious, helped by hot weather in Italy, with shortage of rain in several regions.

Italy's Civil Protection Department said on Friday that airborne firefighters have taken off 418 times since June 15 this year, compared to 176 requests from regions in 2014 and 116 in 2013.

In Italy those who accidentally start a forest fire face up to five years in jail, while arsonists face up to 10 years and the term can be further increased if houses or protected areas are put in peril, Francesca Ottaviani, head of civil protection at Legambiente (League for the Environment), the most widespread environmental organization in Italy, said.

The 2000 law, she explained to Xinhua, has introduced a registry of burnt areas in which subsequent building is prohibited to improve the forest fire situation.

"This instrument is very important as discourages property speculation in these areas," she said.

"It is fundamental, however, that the registry is continually updated with mapping of the forests at the local level," Ottaviani underlined. In fact, she pointed out, prevention is the most important instrument that a State has to avoid loss of a national treasure, forests, of inestimable value. Endit