Preventive measures taken by the Russian authorities help prevent the recurrence of peat fires similar to 2010 in the country, as reported by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The ministry noted that after the 2010 peat fires, a number of measures were taken to prevent the recurrence of such situations, including the watering of peatlands and the development of a four-level forest fire monitoring system, TASS reports.
“Timely adoption of preventive measures allows to ensure an effective level of forest protection and prevent the facts of fires and fires similar to 2010,” the Ministry of Natural Resources said.
So, according to the results of the peatland watering program, designed for 2010-2013, in the Moscow region, 74.36 thousand hectares of peatlands were flooded in 85 most fire hazardous areas, the Ministry of Natural Resources recalled.
In general, in 2021, the number of forest fires in the Central Federal District (CFD) on the lands of the forest fund decreased 2.7 times compared to the same period last year, the area covered by fire decreased 2.3 times. In the Moscow Region, the number of forest fires compared to the same period in 2020 decreased by 1.8 times, and the area covered by fire decreased by 3.3 times.
In 2010, due to extreme heat in Russia, the ecological situation worsened, peat and forest fires intensified – in total, 34.8 thousand foci of wildfires with a total area of about 2 million hectares were recorded, including more than 1,000 peat ones.
