Mexico: Record Number of Forest Fires in 2009
 Notimex
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The nation has registered a record number of forest fires this year in spite of measures set up to prevent them, federal forestry authorities said Monday.
So far this year, 7,700 forest fires have broken out, officials from Co-nafor said at a press conference in Zapopan, Jalisco, compared to an average of 6,810 each year since 1970.
More than 147,000 hectares of land have been affected by the fires, said Conafor officials. That total falls below the annual average since 1970 of 219,086 hectares, which officials said showed progress in fighting fires even if preventive measures had not succeeded in reducing outbreaks.
The states with the most area affected so far this year by forest fires are Coahuila, Quintana Roo, Oa-xaca, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Guerrero, Chiapas, Puebla, State of México and Chihuahua. They accounted for 72 percent of the total national area affected by forest fires. The State of Mexico, Mexico City, Michoacán, Puebla, Chihuahua, Tlaxcala, Chiapas, Hidalgo, Veracruz and Jalisco experienced the most fires.
After a particularly bad forest fire season in 2008, Conafor pledged to devote additional equipment, human resources and special emergency networks to fighting fires. More than 212,000 employees of Conafor, the Defense Secretariat and governments of all levels help fight fires. |
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Editorials | Environmental | May 2009 
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