When a prescribed burn is carried out in a strategic area, the fires end up "starving" due to a lack of fuel (dry vegetation) to feed them.
By Lívia Carvalho Moura, PhD in Ecology and technical advisor at ISPN.
This week, several cities in the interior of São Paulo reported a state of alert due to hotspots and large-scale fires in rural areas. The movement of this smoke, combined with local fires, caused cities like Brasília, Belo Horizonte, and Goiânia to wake up covered in dense, gray air.
The Federal Government has taken a stance and declared the event a new climate crisis in the country. The Federal Police have been called in to investigate the causes of the fires, which appear to have criminal origins.
The big question is: how can we avoid crises like this? We know that once a large fire starts, it's difficult to fight it effectively and without causing damage. Therefore, we need to use preventative techniques and actions.
Prevention, in this case, relies primarily on proper management, tailored to each type of vegetation, considering the land use and occupation situation in each location. With planned management of rural areas, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of wildfires (uncontrolled and unwanted fires) and, consequently, smoke, as well as preserve people's health and contribute to biodiversity.
Integrated Fire Management (IFM) involves a set of preventive actions to avoid wildfires. The recently enacted National IFM Policy (Law No. 14.944/2024) indicates the implementation of planned prescribed burns in strategic areas of fields and savannas where the vegetation is adapted to or dependent on fire. These burns help protect forests and woodlands that suffer from the passage of any fire. This is because, when an area is burned, the fuel in a strip is eliminated and, if a fire occurs later, it cannot spread.
With increasingly frequent climate changes and phenomena, we cannot rely on the luck of having no ignition source. When conducting a prescribed burn in a strategic area, wildfires end up "starving" due to a lack of fuel (dry vegetation) to feed them. With smaller areas being burned in a controlled manner, the amount of smoke decreases.
Populations living in rural areas need to be involved in environmental education initiatives related to fire, monitoring of their areas and surroundings, and the recovery of degraded areas. The urban population also has a crucial role to play through reporting, vigilance, and awareness campaigns.
These actions are an essential part of Integrated Fire Management (IFM). Contrary to popular belief, IFM is not prescribed burning, but rather an approach with various actions and activities, including fire fighting and prevention, all focused on reducing fires and associated problems.
Overall, arson fires are likely to continue as long as there is no awareness and adequate enforcement. However, studies indicate that by...
By managing a territory as foreseen in the Integrated Forest Management Plan (IFM), the occurrence of large fires will decrease. This also occurs because smaller areas are affected by fires after the application of prescribed burns, firebreaks, and the recovery of degraded areas. With smaller areas being burned, the smoke and pollution generated are also reduced.
The local population is better supported, informed, and empowered, with tools to improve monitoring and record incidents or
Reporting crimes involving fire is expected to reduce the occurrence of arson. This is a combination of factors that the MIF (Integrated Fire Management) has as a premise and guideline, which will help to reduce and prevent climate crises.
We need to celebrate the approval of Law 14.944/2024, which creates the National Integrated Fire Management Policy (MIF), because we rely on it to improve our understanding of fire as citizens and to better deal with it through management. The policy is one of the greatest responses to the growing needs for adaptation and mitigation of the impacts of fires, especially in times of climate change.
With the new MIF Policy, things can change. Traditional knowledge from the peoples and communities of the Cerrado has long held that with proper fire management, the likelihood of these incidents being so large and disastrous is very small.
In the last decade, Brazilian institutions have recognized this valuable knowledge and incorporated fire as a management tool. Now, participatory and adaptive planning and monitoring indicate that this is the best path to follow to take good care of nature, socio-biodiversity, and people.
This article was originally published in Correio Braziliense.