Those residents and forest owners who had been penalised by forest rangers due to violation of laws, such as illegal grazing or wood cutting, start fires as an act of revenge. This category of causes is hidden in category unknown and most likely represent a considerable part. Since our figures established for the domanial forest of Bou-Taleb for a period of 15 years are significant, we considered it useful to compare them with other, more ancient statistics. We have an increase at the level of percentages of the unknown origin fires and reduction at the level of those of fires caused by carelessness. However, the large fires are caused by arson.
Local fire reports.
It is noteworthy to mention lighting-caused fires. One of the possible explanations is that climate changed from more humid to dry. Before independence the occurrence of fires was distributed fairly balanced all over the year. Conclusions Fires in forest and other vegetation are a common feature in Mediterranean ecosystems, including in the biogeographical region of Algeria, and have contributed to shape vegetation composition and model landscapes. With the modern increase of wildfire frequency a catastrophic dimension has been reached and it is time to think seriously about taking action to reduce the negative impacts of fire.