An early rainy season and improved government management helped cut the number of forest fires in Cuba in the first half of the year by almost 50 percent, Cuba's National Corps of Forest Rangers (NCR) said Friday.

Some 376 forest fires were recorded in the first six months of 2012, down 46 percent compared with the same period a year ago, when rangers battled 695 fires.

From January to May each year is the traditionally dry season in Cuba and considered as the most high-risk period.

NCR Fire Fighting Director Maylivis Ynowuje praised the low number, saying that only 2,865 hectares of land had been affected by fires early this year, less than a third of the annual average figure of 10,000 hectares.

Ynowuje said that two principal factors led to less forest fires in the country - better coordinations among state agencies in charge of fire prevention, and the early arrival of the rainy season, which for the first time in more than a decade started in April instead of May.

In addition, since January 2012, Cuba's National Forest Fire Monitoring Center has used satellite technologies to monitor temperature hikes in rural areas throughout the country. The center also keeps a databank on forest fires and adopts other fire-fighting measures.

Negligence continues to be the top cause of forest fires, accounting for 89 percent, mainly due to the reckless actions of hunters, poachers, smokers, and operators of agricultural machinery or other equipment without spark safeguards, the official said.