ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian Wildlife Development and Conservation Authority (EWDCA) said it is offering training for firefighting rangers to improve knowledge and skill supported by scientific schemes and technologies.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, EWDCA Public Relations and Communication Expert Nakachew Birlew said that the training that currently being offered to 60 rangers incorporated from federal and regional parks and other reserved areas aimed at increasing trained manpower in firefighting especially in pre accidental protection schemes.
The training mainly focuses on managing fire before and after the occurrence which contains preparedness, wildfire management and firefighting schemes, he noted.
It is also part of the training that saving the natural resources of the country by creating uniform fire management capacity across the country, he said.
The training includes both theoretical and practical working-out contrary to the previous trainings that the authority has been organizing merely depends on theory he stated.
Each year, sequential fire accident occurs and induces notable damage to the parks and reserved areas, he said, adding that the wildfire that happened last year in Semien and Bale Mountains National Parks is one the major factors to organize the capacity building training.
“On the other hand, currently there is a dry season in our country that might aggravate minimum fire incident to large scale damage. Therefore, preparing a standby force that possibly controls incidents using scientific extinguishing mechanisms before exacerbation is essential.”
The trainers are fire ecologists both from local and abroad. Two Ethiopian fire ecologists and three South African experts are offering the training that will be continued until the 20 of this February, he pointed out.
Ethiopia will also share better experience from South Africa as the country has a better establishment in fire management with genuine policy, human resource and technology. Accordingly, the training also helps to collect input to the upcoming national fire management policy, according to Nakachew.
As to him, the major problem to the increment of fire accidents is the absence of proper utilization of the natural resources, augment in the number of population and low public awareness plus illegal settlement and farming.
The authority is also working in awareness creation with the community around parks to be beneficial from the revenue and to be guardians of the parks, as to Nakachew.
For instance, the Semien Mountains National Park is encircled by five woredas and 42 kebeles where the owner of the park is residents live in these kebeles and woredas, he mentioned.
“Therefore, we are working with them to protect the park from danger. We are also helping the society to be organized in an association and get beneficial from tourism services as a tour guide, cook, pack animal rental and so on.”
Therefore, realizing national policy is a must to undertake regular natural resource protection in a formal system and structure, he indicated.
The training is being offered by the authority in collaboration with local and international partners including National Disaster Risk Management Commission, UNESCO and Frankfurt Zoological Society.
The Ethiopian Herald February 18/2020
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
