Marc de Ver­teuil

Hunt­ing sea­son end­ed last week. Hunt­ing is near un­reg­u­lat­ed and the scant rules vir­tu­al­ly un­en­forced. Sci­en­tists warn that the hunt­ing pres­sure is too great for is­lands as small as ours. The small­er the ter­ri­to­ry, the eas­i­er species be­come ex­tinct. Poach­ers have no re­gard for in-sea­son or out-sea­son. They will stalk and kill year-round.

The for­est an­i­mals should breathe a sigh of re­lief that the five-month hunt­ing sea­son is over but in­stead they jump from the fry­ing pan in­to the fire.

This year's ex­treme El Ni�o brings drought and for­est fires. Life-giv­ing wa­ter be­comes scarcer with each rain­less day. Reck­less hu­mans ig­nite bush fires that take on a life of their own. The trees and the vines have lifes­pans of cen­turies but for­est fires can be lit in sec­onds. The for­est takes decades or cen­turies to re­cov­er from each burn event.

There isn't much we can do, as a small is­land na­tion, to in­flu­ence the cli­mate change that has ex­ac­er­bat­ed the El Ni�o event, but we can fight fires and the peo­ple who set them.

This fire sea­son is go­ing to be an­oth­er bad one. The fires burn­ing on dis­tant moun­tain­sides can seem ab­stract to ob­servers down in the low­lands. If we could look in­to the fire zone we would see thou­sands of an­i­mals dis­placed, wound­ed or dead.

Last year, thou­sands of ju­ve­nile par­rots were killed when a 70-hectare for­est in the Cau­ra hills, a prime nest­ing area for par­rots, was set alight. Forestry of­fi­cials sus­pect­ed that the fire start­ed at a wood­en cab­in, which may have been in­ten­tion­al­ly set ablaze. No charges were ever laid for this fire, no cul­prit found. We do know, how­ev­er, that in our cli­mate, fires do not oc­cur nat­u­ral­ly. Hu­mans cause them.

There needs to be a change in the way that bush fires are dealt with. Pre­ven­tion is bet­ter than cure. The threat of le­gal reprisal is an untest­ed de­ter­rent in fight­ing bush­fires.

Each bush­fire needs to be dealt with as the crime scene it is. These are crimes against prop­er­ty and life. The loss of valu­able for­est, wildlife, car­bon sinks and the re­sult­ing floods costs mil­lions.

There needs to be an im­me­di­ate re­sponse by fire­fight­ers and forestry of­fi­cers to each fire. We have a na­tion­al pool of valu­able hu­man re­sources. Train Cepep and URP work­ers in fire­fight­ing skills. Give them a job of which they can be proud and we might not on­ly fight fires, but al­so turn lives around, by giv­ing them greater mean­ing.

In­ves­tiga­tive teams must vis­it the scene of each bush­fire. In­ves­ti­ga­tors should use foren­sics to find the source of the fire and then ar­rest and charge those who lit them.Fire set­ters must be giv­en puni­tive fines and prison sen­tences. Set ex­am­ples.

If there is a sus­pi­cion of slash and burn agri­cul­ture, set a 10-year ban on prac­tis­ing agri­cul­ture on that land to dis­cour­age the prac­tice. Sounds harsh? Gen­tle doc­tors make fes­ter­ing wounds.

Ed­u­ca­tion is key. Ed­u­cat­ing chil­dren at school about the ef­fects of for­est fires. Not one-off teach­ing events, but con­tin­u­ous brain­wash­ing through the cur­ricu­lum and pub­lic ser­vice an­nounce­ments. In­flu­enc­ing young minds is a depth in­vest­ment that will bring about last­ing change.

Cli­mate change will make our is­lands more prone to drought. For­est fires will in­crease in the fu­ture. Forests are our wa­ter­sheds. If we al­low them to be de­stroyed, life-giv­ing wa­ter will dis­ap­pear along with them.

De­sali­na­tion plants may not give us so­lace, as the nat­ur­al gas that we use to pow­er them isn't flow­ing as freely as it was be­fore. Why spend bil­lions on ex­pen­sive projects in­stead of al­low­ing na­ture to do the job?

We must learn to make bet­ter use of our nat­ur­al re­sources. Pro­tect life by pro­tect­ing our forests, wildlife and wa­ter­sheds.

�2Marc@pa­pabois­con­ser­va­tion.org