This is 20 times as much as in the same period of the previous year.
The research was performed using the earthdata of the distant system of earth survey MODIS (NASA). It covered all cases of vegetation burning and fires on residential areas in the period from June until September 2014. The majority of burnings fixed by the satellite happened in the period from 26 July until 6 September in the territory of forests, woodland belts and steppes. Moreover, there were fixed certain dates when fires were especially numerous. For example, such dates are 26 and 31 July, 15 and 25 August as well as 5 September. On some days there were up to 200 fires a day. Mapping of fires leads to the conclusion that such “peaks” are related to days of active military actions and attacks on ATO forces – comments Olena Kravchenko, the executive director of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law”.
A number of fires are related to scarce forests in the region, in particular on the outskirts of the towns of Shchastia and Slavianoserbsk, that are the most inflammable categories of forests in the region.
The EPL research showed that majority of fires in eastern regions of Ukraine happened in the ATO territory. “Intensity of fires in the territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions that are not ATO zones does not considerably differ from average data for this region”, Oleksiy Vasyliuk added. – Therefore, we can make a conclusion that extraordinary increase in the number of fires in the east of Ukraine is a direct consequence of military aggression against Ukraine.”
The cause of growth of the number of fires in the ATO zone is a combination of several factors: dry period that is traditionally associated with increase of the number of vegetation burnings in the region; lack of capacity to extinguish fires (fire extinguishing equipment has been stolen, forests and steppes are mined, there are continuous shooting attacks); many fires are caused by explosions but there are also intentional arsons for tactical reasons.
EPL experts started the assessment of damage to the environment as a result of fires caused by military actions in the east of Ukraine. Results of the research will be communicated additionally.
Reference information:
The Red Data Book of Ukraine lists 124 species of plants found in the territory of ATO zone including 113 species of vascular plants, 1 species of water plant, 7 species of fungi and 3 species of lichen. 36 plant species from the area are included into the European Red List.
It is important to emphasize that within the ATO zone there are 135 protected areas, which is more than one third of all protected areas of the eastern region of Ukraine.
For further information please contact:
Oleksiy Vasyliuk
Email: vasyliuk@gmail.com; office@epl.org.ua
tel.: (032) 225-76-82; (097) 1000 473
