The Northern Regional Minister Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris has urged the country's development partners to increase their support for fire management projects in the three Northern regions.
He said wildfires had become annual threats to the ecosystem, including agriculture produce and life and property in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.
He said statistics showed that the total area prone to wildfire annually in the country ranged from 30 per cent in the high forest and transition zone to over 90 per cent in the dry northern savanna zone, which comprises the three Northern regions.
Alhaji Idris said this in an address read for him at the Regional launch of the "National Wildfire Management Policy" document for the three Northern regions in Tamale on Tuesday.
It was organised by the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines and supported by the Government of the Netherlands with a grant of 12 million Euros for the implementation of the Wildfire Management Project.
Alhaji Idris said it was estimated that about 65 square kilometers of forest are annually lost due primarily to wildfire, poor agriculture practices, over-logging and excessive mining.
He said the annual loss of timber, cash and food crops to wildfire alone was currently estimated at three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is about 210 million US dollars.
He therefore urged institutions responsible for implementing the wildfire policy to take it seriously and make adequate provisions for fire management issues in their budgets.
