Washington (EFE).- In the coming years, an increase in fire emergencies is coming due to the increase in global temperature due to climate change, explained the regional director of the United States Agency for International Development in a conversation with the media. USAID/BHA for Latin America and the Caribbean, Tim Callaghan.
“We are providing much more training, technical assistance and working with firefighting agencies throughout the region,” he said at one of the agency’s operations centers in the US capital, from where emergency aid is coordinated.
Although until now most of the agency’s actions in the Americas have been focused on natural catastrophes such as hurricanes or earthquakes, the consequences of climate change are giving rise to new challenges such as the disproportionate increase in fires.
The fires in Canada have shaped the problem
An example of what is happening is being seen in Canada, where around 470 fires are still active. So far this year, the flames have destroyed more than 4.8 million hectares of forest, an area equal to that of Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra and Malta combined.
“We are seeing the fires in Canada now and the impact they are causing, and it is still early for the fire season (…) and an increase in fires has also been seen in Chile, in South America,” he added. Callaghan.
“This is one of the things that we are monitoring, as many governments are doing at the moment,” said the director of the agency in charge of distributing foreign aid, belonging to the State Department.
The lung of the Amazon does not escape
According to data provided to EFE by a USAID spokesperson, since the historic fires in the Amazon in 2019 that affected Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil, the organization “has escalated its work to prepare for and respond to forest fires” and has provided almost $3 million, through 2022, in aid through the United States Forest Service (USFS).
Previously, this work was only implemented on a smaller scale, through the Regional Disaster Assistance Program (RDAP), through the provision of training and equipment.
“Usaid’s work with USFS has helped increase the level of training and technical assistance at the community level for prevention since the response to the 2019 forest fires, which required significant international assistance in the Amazon region,” the spokesperson said.
When catastrophic wildfires occur, USAID can deploy a wildfire technical assistance team within 72 hours of the start of the fire.
USAID experts work with local officials in a country affected by wildfires to provide technical assistance on firefighting tactics, smoke modeling and trajectory, resource coordination, and recommendations for protecting the burned area.