Many rural peoples and communities throughout Brazil traditionally use fire for their productive, cultural, and daily activities. Among the activities in which fire is most commonly used are: family farming; land clearing; reduction of combustible material (dry vegetation) to protect areas from fires; hunting wild animals; regrowth of pastures for feeding cattle and other livestock; stimulating the flowering and fruiting of plants of interest for food, crafts, construction, medicine, and other uses; celebrations, rituals, and entertainment; and the warding off of insects, pests, and other unwanted animals.
Although most of these fires are traditionally carried out during the dry season, they are controlled by community leaders or smallholders. These people generally choose cooler, more humid days and times, which facilitate fire control, and areas surrounded by natural barriers (rivers, green forests, and flooded areas) or anthropogenic barriers (roads, paths, and firebreaks) to prevent the fire from escaping. Some indigenous peoples have people specialized in the use of fire for hunting—among the Xavante people, for example, they are the so-called "owners of the fire." By taking these precautions, they avoid the risk of burning or damaging their production systems, homes, and other areas of economic, social, or cultural interest.
In cerrado and grassland ecosystems, traditional practices involving fire are more common, and larger areas are often burned for land management. In forests, marshes, and woodlands, fire is used more sparingly, such as for preparing crops and collecting honey. This is because many indigenous and traditional peoples, with their ecological knowledge, know that these environments are sensitive to fire and that they need to be protected to continue enjoying their resources.
Over thousands of years, ecological knowledge of fire, passed down to future generations, has improved and been adapted according to the socio-environmental needs of each historical period. Thus, technologies and social techniques have been developed to meet the food, cultural, and protection demands of different peoples and the contexts in which they live.
For example, creating mosaics of areas with different burn histories and vegetation types helps protect territories from fires by breaking the continuity of fuel formed by dry vegetation and preventing fire spread during critical periods. At the same time, it helps preserve plants that require clearings to receive sunlight, and others that are stimulated to reproduce after fire passes, providing fruits that are important sources of nutrients. These fruits and the regrowth of vegetation feed various wild animals that are attracted to managed areas and also serve as food for these populations.
Complex techniques and tools were developed by indigenous peoples to manipulate and control fire behavior under meteorological conditions (temperature, relative humidity, and wind) unfavorable to fire propagation, and in environments with varying degrees of flammable vegetation. To ensure management objectives are met, even in the face of climate change, planning systems are commonly used, using collective maps and calendars based on the lunar cycle and the reproduction of certain species, the position of the stars, animal behavior, and bodily sensitivities and discomforts, such as bone, tooth, and joint pain.
With the new National Policy for Integrated Fire Management (PNMIF), these cultural practices and generational ecological knowledge are respected and recognized as an essential part of landscape management. The PNMIF is a Brazilian government initiative that recognizes and values the traditional use of fire by indigenous, traditional, and rural communities. It seeks to integrate this knowledge into fire prevention and control efforts, promoting the controlled use of fire to protect and conserve ecosystems and reduce environmental impacts. Its regulations, which began in 2024, aim to expand these strategies nationwide, supporting community training and the use of monitoring technologies.
Based on integrated fire management (IFM), it is understood that the services provided by indigenous, traditional and rural peoples and communities are numerous and need to be valued, because, without their actions, much larger areas would burn during fires and many sensitive areas would remain degraded.
In this sense, since 2014, the traditional ecological knowledge and social technologies of these populations have been surveyed, recorded, and, where possible, incorporated by public institutions into the implementation of fire prevention and control measures, including the use of controlled fires, prescribed burns, and firebreaks. The promising results of the MIF have expanded the adoption of these practices to other territories and, at the same time, convinced various social actors that the experiences of these peoples are crucial to reducing the areas burned by fires and the problems associated with them.
Even with the progress made with MIF in protected areas under the jurisdiction of federal agencies, climate change combined with environmental crimes have made fire management challenging for rural populations and communities. The reality in most rural areas is an increase in devastating fires, especially in the Cerrado, the Amazon, and the Pantanal. This situation has occurred because MIF and its actions remain poorly understood and implemented by states, municipalities, traditional communities, and rural producers.
In general, indigenous, traditional, and rural populations are being forced to adapt their practices and techniques around the use of fire, and in some places, even replace it entirely. The periods, times of day, and locations of burning are the factors that are being most relaxed to favor fire control. To this end, communities are having to change calendars and locations of production systems and cultural and social events, delaying or advancing some practices. Creating firebreaks around burned areas has also become an essential practice.
Another initiative has been the production of teaching and learning materials, written in Indigenous languages. These materials not only value and strengthen traditional knowledge for future generations, but also address new technical needs in light of the challenges Indigenous peoples face due to climate change and landscape transformations, especially in territories neighboring Indigenous Lands (increasing areas of native vegetation converted to monoculture or pasture). Many of these materials also provide guidance on managing solid waste generated by the purchase of goods in local commerce, such as plastic packaging, among others.
At the same time, many rural communities have adopted monitoring technologies, such as online alert systems, drones, and patrols, to respond more quickly to fire outbreaks and prevent their spread to other areas. The formation and training of volunteer, community, and private brigades is another strategy that has gained traction in a wide range of territories and has shown very positive results.
*Lívia Moura is a geographer and holds a PhD in ecology and is a Technical Advisor at the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN). Eduardo Barnes is the Manager of Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities, Iconic Landscape Cerrado, at The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
Article originally published on One Planet.