Authors:
E. V. ARKHIPOV, researcher,
KAZAKH SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FORESTRY AND AGROMELIORATION (58 Kirova Str., 021704, Schuchinsk, Republic of Kazakhstan)
S. V. ZALESOV, doctor of agricultural sciences, professor,
URAL STATE FOREST ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY (37 Sibirskiy tract, 620100, Ekaterinburg)
Abstract. Actual forest burning index in the republic of Kazakhstan for the period 1954–2016 has been analyzed in this paper. At is noted that under the low forests covering (4.57 %) some years of the above mentioned period are characterized by extraordinary high burning index of the forest fund. The extreme in such a case is 1997 when 2257 forest fires has been registered and the area passed by the fires constituted 217 thousands of ha. The main cause of the forest fires is carelessness in handling with fire of local inhabitants and those who have a rest in the forest. On the whole, anthropogenic reasons are responsible for 82 % of all registered fires. Exceptions are the Irtysh forest patches in steppe where the natural reasons are responsible for 50–65 % of all the forest fires. The years of independence the republic of Kazakhstan according to the actual forest burning index can be conditionally divided into three periods:
1991–1993 – the period when the Soviet system of forest conservancy was retained;
1994–2007 – the period of soviet system of forest conservancy disintegration and the crisis state of ceomomics;
2008 – nowadays – the period of forest management system forming and strengthening.
The last period coincides with gradual leaving the crisis state. High actual forest burning index testifies to the necessity to improve the forest protection from fires.
Keywords: forest burning, forest fire, steppe fire, area passed by fire, actual forest burning, forest protection from fires.
