Tunis/Tunisia — The forest fires which had broken out on July 12, 2023 in the Melloula forests in Tabarka (Governorate of Jendouba, north-west Tunisia) had ravaged 450 hectares of maritime pine, said Tabarka forest district head Noureddine Azizi in a statement to TAP.
He pointed out that the maritime pine forest covers 5,000 hectares on the Tunisian-Algerian border, deploring the enormous damage to the region's ecosystems.
"We were on the verge of bringing the fire under control, but the wind and the sirocco made it easier for the fires to spread and made it more difficult to control them," he lamented.
"Vegetation doesn't usually ignite on its own, even in high temperatures. The first spark would have been triggered by accidental or deliberate human action," he added, recommending that people should be made more aware of the importance of environmental ecosystems, which are a public asset that must be preserved, indeed an asset belonging to all of humanity, in view of the exacerbation of climate change and the resulting risks of global warming.
He called for firm penalties to be imposed on anyone found to be involved in these acts, and called for better preservation of the ecosystems in the regions of Tabarka and Aïn Drahem, home to the country's densest forest, as well as in all regions of Tunisia.
He also commended the efforts of all stakeholders (civil protection, army, security forces, citizens, General Directorate of Forests, etc.) who had intervened on Tuesday to bring under control the pockets of fire that erupted earlier on Tuesday in the "Ain Al-Sobh" and "Melloula" areas.
"Priority was given to residential areas and human lives. We managed to avoid loss of life, but unfortunately we were unable to avoid environmental damage," he regretted.
Tunisia's forests cover 4.6 million hectares, or 34% of the national territory.
The forests are located mainly in the north and centre-west regions and are home to almost a million people. Its economic value is estimated at TND 932 million, according to data from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
The year 2020 was characterised by a record number of fires, with an average exceeding the number of fires recorded between 2011 and 2019, according to data from the General Directorate of Forests under the Ministry of Agriculture. 55 fires were recorded between July 22 and the first week of August 2020, with 18 fires in the regions of Béja, Jendouba, le Kef, Siliana, Bizerte and Nabeul.
The phenomenon of forest fires continued in 2022, with 88 fires ravaging almost 3,000 hectares over the period from June 1 to July 26, 2022.
