UPM Forestal Oriental - Social and Enviromental Report 2014

RESPONSIBLE FIRE MANAGEMENT

For the 2014-2015 season we implemented a national Forest Fire Protection Plan, develo- ped within the framework of the Forestry Producers Society by technical representati- ves of the existing forestry companies in the three major forest regions of the country (South-east, North and Littoral of the Uru- guay River), in which UPM Forestal Oriental played an active role. Based on our experience in previous years, where the system was used exclusively in the south-east of the country, we wor- ked to cover an effective forested area of 720,000 ha. This represents approximately 90% of the total forest plantations in the country. The main objective of the system has been to reduce the incidence and consequences of forest fires through the early detection of outbreaks and rapid, efficient and coordinated action to combat fires. Three Operational Bases were therefore set up in the cities of Treinta y Tres, Guichón and Tacuarembó. Each of these bases has a helicopter capable of carrying a fully equip- ped combat team with 6 fire-fighters and a helibucket with a discharge capacity of 800 litres. The Plan was developed jointly with a system of watchtowers strategically placed in areas where there is a greater concentration of forests and aircraft for the detection of fire outbreaks. The aircraft fly over the forested areas, following the instructions received by an Operations Base that centralises all informa- tion and coordinates the various resources of the three regions. The flights carried out by the aircraft are determined by the IRIF (Fo- rest Fire Risk Index), which is determined according to the information received and processed by the Operations Base. The system is complemented by preventi- ve actions such as maintenance tasks in the forests and fire buffer areas, monitoring and educational campaigns and radio broadcas- ting. With regard to radio broadcasting this year we managed to run a single Fire Preven- tion Radio Campaign between all of the fo- restry companies in the country, always within the framework of the SPF and broad- cast by radio stations across the country. This project allowed the new UPM Fores- tal Oriental system to go from covering 50,000 hectares to almost 200,000 ha.

TRAINING

Training courses were held on preventing and fighting forest fires, as well as a cour- se on fire extinguishers. In both cases, the participants were the employees of UPM Forestal Oriental employees and Service Providers. Fire extinguishers: 90 participants Forest fires: 220 participants

At UPM, we work on the basis that all accidents are

preventable. We are focused on the pursuit of continuous safety improvements. This has allowed significant reduction in accident rates.

GERARDO GALIMBERTI Security Manager

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