More than 300 fires damaged forests in Cuba during the first five months of 2024.

A total of 326 forest fires were recorded in Cuba between January and May of this year, causing damage to over 2,787 hectares of forests, according to data from the Forest Rangers Corps.

During the first five months of 2024, April and May reported the highest number of accidents -220 in total-, when historically March and April have been the months that have recorded the most accidents and damaged areas, according to an article in the official newspaper Granma.

This was due to adverse weather conditions, influenced by the El Niño phenomenon, ranging from moderate to strong.

Climatological factors also played a role from March to May, associated with the rainy season of the year having "accumulated below-normal precipitation values throughout the national territory, mainly in the western and central regions," explained the report.

Pinar del Río was the province with the highest number of fires: 90; but the special municipality Isla de la Juventud (46), Holguín (34), and Matanzas (30) were also among the territories with the most incidents.

Cuban authorities attributed over 95% of fires to human negligence, among which they listed multiple purposes burning (28%), the irresponsibility of smokers and passersby (26%), the circulation of vehicles with technical defects in the exhaust system of internal combustion gases -"spark arresters"- (17%), illegal fishing and hunting (15%), and the destruction of illegal beehives (6%).

The 86.48% of the incidents in the first five months of 2024 were contained before reaching five hectares, according to the official statistics of the Forest Fire Protection Campaign 2024, which the government carries out between January and May of each year.

However, authorities warned that "there are dangerous conditions for the occurrence of large-scale forest fires in certain regions of the country," and called for prevention to avoid them.

At the end of May, two large wildfires in the municipality of San Juan y Martínez, in Pinar del Río, damaged around 545 hectares of forest.

In January, another large-scale fire consumed protected forest areas in the areas of Tres Fiebres, in Moa, and Alto de Cruzata, Yateras, belonging to the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park (AHNP), in the provinces of Holguin and Guantanamo, respectively.

From January to May 2023, 613 forest fires were recorded in Cuba, affecting 13,980 hectares of forest and 489.5 hectares of marsh grasslands.