The provinces have made efforts to raise awareness of forest fire prevention among local people who live nearby fire-prone forests. Officials have been sent to villages to talk to people and urge them not to make a fire inside forests.
They have also kept a close watch on people and vehicles going in and out forests to prevent illegal hunting and to stop people from using smoke to remove bees and harvest honey.
Dozens of thousands of households living surrounding forest areas were asked to sign commitments to forest fire prevention and forest protection while villagers were provided with instruction on proper slash-and-burn cultivation practices.
Besides, hundreds of teams were set up at villages, hamlets and companies to be prepared for any fire emergency.
Local forest owners have repaired and constructed thousands of km of firebreak and erected signs warning fire risk and fire watchtowers while people have been allocated to regularly patrol the forests and watch out fire around the clock at fire-prone areas.
The Central Highlands has more than 2.55 million hectares of forests, of which over 324,200 hectares are planted forests and the remainder is natural forests.
Dak Lak and Gia Lai have the largest fire-prone forest areas of about 300,000 and 225,000 hectares, respectively.
VNA/VNP
