American scientists from California State University investigated the possibility of fighting forest fires using banana trees. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine PNAS Port.
Banana trees contain large amounts of water, making them difficult to burn.
The team ran computer simulations using data collected during the 2017 wildfire in California’s Sonoma County.
Calculations showed that creating strips of banana trees 633 meters wide would reduce the severity of the fire by 96%. The effect of such buffers is comparable to mechanical processing of forest areas by thinning and controlled burning of vegetation.
Even if fire destroys banana trees, new bulbs will grow in their place.
In addition, if there is no fire, banana trees can bring more than 76 thousand dollars of fruit per hectare. According to the authors, their ideas can be implemented in Mexico, Chile, Australia, South Africa and countries in the Mediterranean basin.
previously scientist named The main cause of forest fires in Russia.