FOREST BURNING IS A BIG THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT IN ZANZIBAR

BY, HAJI NASSOR-PEMBA

BURNING of forests is the biggest threat of environmental damage in the Jonzani national park located 35 kilometers south of the island of Unguja.

This park with an area of 5,000 hectares is the home of the rare natural resource Kima Punju (Zanzibar Red Colobus Monkey), animals that are not found anywhere else in the world.

In addition, it is one of the few natural forests with world status recognized by the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO).

This damage is due to the increase of human activities in the reserve area, especially agriculture, beekeeping and grazing for animals.

Forest burning in this period is greater than it was six decades ago.

According to the Zanzibar Department of Forestry and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, the burning of forests in this reserve was three hectares on November 13, 2012 but the rate increased by 50 times on February 8, 2015, where 141 hectares of forests were burned in a period of two years only until October 27, 2015.

DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS IN THE WORLD

According to a 2008 study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 'Fire events that vary from year to year', fire accidents in natural forests have increased over the past 25 years.

The study says that these incidents have increased more rapidly since 2002-2003 compared to 1972. This situation has been caused by the increase in the world's population, which has led to an increase in the use of natural forest resources.

The country of Chile recorded the most uses of forest burning, where from 1974 to 2004, 35,000 hectares were burned.

In addition, all incidents of forest burning in the country every year have occurred between October and April. During this period, the market for natural forest resources such as honey and wood is larger than other months; but it is the season of agriculture and foraging for animals.

For example, cattle ranchers in Chile use fire as a marker to control the grazing area, however, the fire spreads over long distances and cannot be controlled due to the lack of services and enough people in the forest.

However, in many African countries, fire accidents occur during periods of extreme heat, wind and drought. For example, in Uganda, the 20 fires reported in 2004-2007 occurred during a period of extreme heat and burned more than 6,000 hectares of forest.

FAO also says, from 1980-2008, 284 incidents of forest fires have occurred and caused the deaths of 1,666 people, where an average of 57 people were killed every year.

Also, another 5,766,092 people have been affected by incidents where the average number of people affected is 198,831 per year. Forest burning has also brought economic effects; during that period 42,806,705 US dollars were lost equal to an average of 1,476,093 dollars per year.

According to FAO's 2006 global fire management report, most fire accidents are caused by increased human activities. For example, the report shows that 95 percent of forest fires in Mediterranean countries are caused by human activities, South Asia (90%), South America (85%) and Africa (97%).

Between 2002 and 2003, an estimated 300 to 400 million hectares were burned; half of all incidents occurred in Africa.

Moreover, between 1990 and 2000, Africa lost 52 million hectares of forests.

DESTRUCTION OF JONZANI FOREST

Research has found that 141 hectares have been burned from November 13, 2012 to October 27, 2015. All these incidents have occurred between October and February.

Researcher Fatma Juma Ali from the National University of Zanzibar (SUZA) in her research, 'Forest fire in Zanzibar; a case of Jazani Chwaka Bay National Park', he says that all incidents of burning in this park are caused by human activities such as beekeeping and rarely agriculture.

He says that out of the five incidents that occurred from January to October 2015, four are due to honey bee stings and burned a large area of land and one was caused by agricultural activities and burned three hectares.

In addition, he says that these incidents occur between October and February because it is the season of honey production because during this period the bees have made large hives with enough honey. The forest of the Jonzani national park provides 50 percent of all the honey produced in the island of Unguja due to having many trees that attract bees.

The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Natural Resources and Fisheries, Hamad Rashid Mohammed, says the problem of environmental damage in the Jonzani National Park is frightening.

Speaking in a special interview with this article, Hamad says that apart from forest burning to an alarming level, another problem is the harvesting of the natural resources contained in the reserve for commercial activities, a situation that has caused major changes in the reserve.

"We have a big problem of destruction in this park,

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