The People’s Committee of the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang has sent a notice directing local cities and districts to proactively take measures to prevent and fight forest fires.

Boasting nearly 350,000 hectares of forest, fires are likely to flare up in the dry season every year, with nine cases reported in the districts of Bac Me, Hoang Su Phi, Quan Ba and Yen Minh in 2013, mainly due to poor local awareness of forest protection, a local official said.

The dissemination of the law on the issue has been underlined as one of the key and long-term measures as well as the major task of local forest rangers to preserve and develop community-based forests.

Local authorities have also worked with educationalists to raise the importance of forest protection among students.-VNA