Forestry authorities have urged local governments to do more to prevent and control forest fires in the autumn, the most dangerous season for them.

"The third quarter of the year is a key time for fires caused by lightening in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, two of China's largest forest zones with dry weather and increasingly windy days," said Cao Qingyao, spokesman for the State Forestry Administration (SFA).

Forest fires swept through almost 84,000 hectares of woods throughout China between April and June; more than 5,300 fires were reported.

But although the area affected was 83 per cent lower than the same period in the previous three years, the reported number of fires and casualties had doubled.

Cao said yesterday that 41 people had been killed and 15 injured by forest fires between April and June.

He said controlling forest fires "will become more difficult in autumn with people flocking to forests to harvest crops and herbs for medicine."

"Anything that can cause fires must be carefully monitored, while the authorities must get ready to mitigate any damage caused," he added.

Some parts of forests were destroyed, such as in fires which hit woodland in North China's Shanxi Province and Southwest China's Sichuan Province, he quoted the SFA's latest reports as saying.

About one-third of the fires were caused by people working in the forests.

Other causes included fires spreading into China from neighbouring countries and lightening.

So far, investigations into 66 per cent of the fires have finished, with 3,400 people investigated. About 640 people have been sentenced for arson or other related crimes, Cao said.

Meanwhile, during the first half of this year, SFA also looked into more than 200,000 cases of illegal logging across China, including excessive and non-licensed tree felling, the reclamation of woodland for farming and occupying forests for new projects.

Forest authorities have given out more than 136 million yuan (US$167.694) in fines for such cases, which threatened the sustainability of forests and the rehabilitation of ecosystems.

(China Daily 07/25/2005 page2)