TITLE:
Fire and People in Three Rural Communities in Kabylia (Algeria): Results of a Survey
AUTHORS:
Ouahiba Meddour-Sahar, Raffaella Lovreglio, Rachid Meddour, Vittorio Leone, Arezki Derridj
KEYWORDS:
Fire Motivations; Folk Crime; FCA; Kabylia; Pastoralism; Political Fire
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.3 No.1,
January
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: This research was conducted to investigate about the causes of wildfires in three municipalities of the Tizi Ouzou and Bouira provinces, in Kabylia. Unknown forest fire causes account for 80% of total in Algeria, with a peak of about 99% in Kabylia, the most forested region in the country but also the most severely affected by wildfires. The three study areas exhibit a rather high forestry ratio (40% on average) but also a very high population density, up to 300 people per km2, living in a multitude of small hamlets, near or inside the domanial forests and exerting an enormous pressure on them. Survey was carried out on people (N = 300) randomly selected in nine hamlets (thaddarth) through ad hoc questionnaires (134 possible replies) filled with face-to-face interviews. Factorial Correspondence Analysis was used to process data (300 × 134 replies in total). Fires result mainly voluntary (52.95%): pastoral fires to renew pastures (11.30%), political fires as security counter-terrorism measure (11.24%), uncontrolled garbage burning (6.83%). Negligent fires account for 41.79%: carelessly tossed cigarette butts (9.13%), agricultural works (burning of cut bush, stubble burning, 7.03%), restart of fire (6.83%) and forest activities in the forest (6.31%). Results depict a common core of fires due to the pressure on the domanial forests, on which traditional use of fire (pastoralism) and national security needs (counter-terrorism) dominate.