Between 90 and 95 percent of forest fires are of human origin, fundamentally due to burning for different purposes, irresponsible smokers and passers-by and the circulation of vehicles with technical flaws in the exhaust system of internal combustion gases.

There are also irresponsible activities by fishermen and poachers and illegal beehive castrators, Colonel Manuel Lama, head of Cuba’s Forest Ranger Corps, explained, according to Granma newspaper.

Cuba’s policy calls for the prevention of such acts through an awareness campaign that begins in January and ends every year on May 31, and which seeks to avoid threats to people’s lives, economic losses and environmental deterioration, he said.

It is an eminently preventive vision, which aims to consolidate and unite the national system to confront the emergence and spread of forest fires, added Lamas.

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