«Calabria burns. Literally. And his woods, his biodiversity, his local economies and, above all, the hope of those who love and live this land burned with it. In the face of over 35,000 hectares that went in smoke only until mid -July – dramatic data provided by Legambiente – it is time that the state is aware of a simple reality: this emergency can no longer be managed as a summer custom. We need an extraordinary, shared, urgent plan. A new pact for prevention is needed ».
Giuseppe Graziano, regional councilor and president of Action Calabria, former Forestry worker, an officer of the State Forestry Corps and Technician of the National Civil Protection, writes it in a note, with over forty years of direct experience in prevention and active struggle against forest fires.
«I speak with knowledge of the facts – underlines Graziano – because this was my professional life. And it is precisely this experience that leads me today to launch an alarm and ask for a paradigm change: we cannot limit ourselves to the intervention in an emergency. The key word is prevention. A word that today is almost completely absent in our woods, especially public ones, which represent 35% of the regional forest territory. And it is from there that we have to start again ». “Two operations – he adds – would already be sufficient to drastically reduce the fire risk: creation of fire -fighting bands and constant maintenance of the woods. But today, in the public, these activities have disappeared. The private individual, on the other hand, often remains harnessed in bureaucracy and authorizations. So the fire finds fertile ground and triggers disasters that could have been avoided ».
Graziano continues by analyzing the current picture of the firefighting in Calabria: «Compared to a few years ago, we are under staff and under equipment. Today we have 500 forestry workers on the field, 60 AIB teams, 26 trucks, 40 fire-fighting pick-ups, 45 teams of volunteers, 4 helicopters and 4 Canadair. It is a number that is enough for the ordinary. But the point is that the Calabrian summer, between high temperatures even at night and constant wind, has been no longer ordinary for some time. It is an impairing struggle ». “Just think – he recalls – that in the past, only in the province of Cosenza, over 80 AIB teams operated, with double shifts, more than 100 Ovetete’s active lookout stations, 30 trucks and numerous prompt intervention modules. It was an effective, widespread system, built on the principle of timely sighting and immediate intervention. Because when you waste time, the fire wins ».
“The Calabria Region – concludes the president of Action Calabria – is doing everything possible, with the maximum use of its resources. But alone it is not enough. The state cannot leave the regions to its destiny, especially in the face of extraordinary and repeated events that have direct consequences on the climate, the environment, the economy. A large national plan for fire prevention is needed, with extraordinary and continuous investments. The damage caused by the fire cost infinitely more than the interventions to avoid them. And the protection of nature for man is priceless ».