600 fires of herbs, crops, and fruit and forest trees last year

Ajloun – Ali Al-Qudah

A symposium organized by the Community Support Committees Project (Ajloun Committee), implemented by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund, with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in cooperation with the Directorates of Education, Civil Defense and the Royal Department for Environmental Protection in Ajloun Governorate, discussed the negative effects of forest fires (summer fires) on the environment. And biodiversity with supervisors and supervisors of school clubs for environmental protection and printing in schools, was held in the hall of the Ajloun Pioneer Secondary School for Girls under the auspices of the Director of Administrative and Financial Affairs Sobha Al-Momani and in the presence of the Head of the Control and Audit Department Rami Annab, Captain Ahmed Rababaa, First Lieutenant Ahmed Al-Ghazou, First Lieutenant Eng. Al-Smadi and environment official in the Education Directorate Ahmed Freihat.

Al-Momani said that the school curricula contribute to spreading environmental awareness and achieving the goals of environmental education by focusing on clarifying the human role in the balance of the ecosystem and the damages resulting from environmental pollution, fires, its forms and causes, and the effects of the bad use of the environment. This provides an opportunity for students to realize the importance of the natural environment, its resources and components in life, and their duty to preserve the integrity of the environment as a human duty, stressing what the Ministry is doing to include in the school curricula many topics related to the environment, pointing to the Directorate’s effort to promote and intensify awareness programs on issues The environment in general and what is related to the national wealth, forests in particular, as a national wealth, is everyone’s responsibility. The first lieutenant of the Civil Defense Directorate of the governorate, Ahmed Al-Ghazou, said that the Ajloun governorate enjoys natural features, difficult geographical topography, and the density of trees and forests that extend over an area of ​​419 thousand dunums, of which about 190 thousand forests; These areas must be protected from fires and the environmental damage they inflict, pointing out that last year’s fires amounted to about 600 fires between herbs, crops, and fruit and forest trees, while this year it reached 37 fires, indicating that the causes of forest fires are due to picnics, child abuse, arson, earthquakes, and volcanoes ; This confirms the importance of preserving these capabilities.

The trainer at the Royal Department for Environmental Protection branch in Ajloun, First Lieutenant Eng. Wafaa Qudah, explained the department’s efforts to reduce violations, environmental damage and various fires to public health and safety, stressing the importance of awareness and education and promoting participatory work between various parties to develop environmental sense among all segments of society, noting To the importance of the role of environmental associations and school clubs to protect the environment and youth through the development of a comprehensive plan to identify the causes of fires.

The principal of the school, Khitam Al-Smadi, explained the importance of the role played by environmental protection clubs in schools through school radio and organizing awareness and educational seminars and lectures to reduce the negative effects of fires in destroying the ecosystem and causing damage to perennial and rare forest trees. The official of the environmental clubs in the Directorate of Education, Ahmed Freihat, said that forest fires are considered one of the most dangerous reasons for the destruction of forest areas and cause material losses as a result of wrong human activities, whether with intent or criminal intent, and high temperatures, especially in dry seasons, and hikers leaving stoves behind without Turning it off, indicating the role of the clubs and their awareness participation for school students and participation in the Knights of Nature program. At the end of the symposium, the participants and attendees recommended the necessity of intensifying forest monitoring, activating the observation towers that have been established, increasing the number of rafts in a way that suits the areas of forests in the governorate, and strengthening monitoring patrols around the clock, along with protection workers to reduce fires and attacks on forest wealth, in partnership with the relevant authorities.