A dose of controlled burns before the dry season, interspersed with educational initiatives, reduces the spread of criminal and malicious fires during droughts.
A benchmark in Integrated Fire Management (IFM) policy, the Cerrado is a central biome for considering fire prevention, which devastated immense areas this year. While the tragic scenes of September and October in the Pantanal are now fading from public memory with the arrival of the rains, experts warn that this is the best time to focus on fire prevention, as fires will certainly return next year. The effort lies in planning to reduce annual losses. And this is possible.
Since the beginning of the colonial period, attempts to eliminate fire from native vegetation – which has burned naturally for thousands of years – have not worked. The year 2020 was marked by large fires in the Pantanal, Amazon, and Cerrado biomes. The Amazon concentrated 46% of the hotspots, followed by the Cerrado with 30%, and the Pantanal with 10,5%, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
When considering options for reducing wildfires, experts believe the best approach is the implementation of the National Integrated Forest Management Policy. The pilot program, initiated six years ago in Brazil, is now a topic of discussion. 11.276 / 2018 Bill, currently under consideration in the Chamber of Deputies.
To contribute to and enhance the debate, the topic was discussed in Thematic webinar held by the Environmental Parliamentary Front with support from the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) and SOS Mata Atlântica.The event, which took place on November 25th, featured presentations by researchers and experts explaining the MIF policy, its benefits, and consequences. [The full broadcast can be viewed here]
traditional knowledge
Fire control is considered one of humanity's greatest inventions. It serves not only to cook food or provide warmth from the cold, but for millennia it has been used by traditional peoples and communities as a primary tool for protection against fires, including natural ones. In an area undergoing prescribed burning, behind the grasses modified by the fire, lie protected green buriti palms and riparian forests.
It is the buriti palm, among other species, that feeds the birds, protects water sources, and generates income for local traditional communities, who make sweets, jams, and other naturally organic products. feeding the rural school in the region, as well as families in the city center. The burnt grasses form barriers: if an unexpected fire arrives, it is not possible to advance over what has already burned. The buriti palms and other sensitive species, therefore, remain unharmed.
Without controlled burns, in a fire situation, dry grasses accumulated over time serve as fuel for the fire to rapidly advance over the riparian forests that guarantee the water supply for communities and cities. Just as vaccines protect humans from epidemics, small doses of controlled burns, administered beforehand, also serve to protect life against fires, which are becoming stronger every day, especially with climate change.
Planned burns, long used by traditional peoples and communities, fragment the landscape to reduce the size of the fire, protect sensitive vegetation and wildlife, and reduce firefighting costs. Currently, MIF (Integrated Fire Management) is carried out in conservation units and some indigenous territories. It is a technique that requires constant monitoring and evaluation.
Arson fires are expected to increase.
Climate forecasts point to a critical increase in the number of fires in Brazil in the long term, considering projections up to 2100 presented in the webinar. Renata Libonati, PhD professor in the Meteorology department at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), emphasizes that even in the most optimistic scenario, large-scale fires are expected to increase in the statistics of the coming years. When asked what to do to avoid this environmental catastrophe, Libonati points to the Integrated Forest Management (IFM) combined with education and enforcement actions.
2020 was the year with the highest fire risk since 1980, but nothing is so bad that it can't get worse. "Climatic conditions are becoming increasingly favorable to fire, increasing its incidence. More than ever, prevention is important. It is necessary to manage the landscape and control human activity," says Libonati.
Professor Isabel Schmidt, from the Department of Ecology at the University of Brasília (UnB), emphasizes that a prescribed burn is completely different from wildfires, which are caused by the uncontrolled use of fire. In controlled burns carried out during the rainy season or the beginning of the dry season, the fire has low severity, with lower intensity and temperature, and reduced impact on ecosystems.
According to the researcher, the attempt at "zero fire" leads to large wildfires because it generates an accumulation of biomass, which becomes fuel. "A wildfire is uncontrolled fire, it generates economic and health damage, it destroys vegetation. Sometimes we use fire to prevent wildfires. What we want is to eliminate wildfires," she emphasizes. This way, we prevent ecocides in the country and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Work tool for firefighters.
As a preventative technique, MIF proposes altering the work of firefighters: instead of the urgent, exhausting, and tragic firefighting efforts during the dry season, it introduces a pre-planned approach involving small, monitored burns in May, during the last rains, when the vegetation is still green and therefore the fire spreads slowly. Warley Rodrigues, from the Tocantins Nature Institute, defends MIF as a working tool that should be operated by firefighters trained according to the knowledge of local communities.
The goal of MIF, Rodrigues emphasizes, is to reduce the scars of fires by applying the technique in private areas and creating municipal calendars for the use of fire. To achieve this, it's important to shift the burning season, moving from the driest months to the end of the rainy season, creating mosaics in the landscape. Continuous hiring of firefighters is a demand from fire experts.
Legal certainty in fire ecology
In environments called "pyrophytic," fauna and flora are adapted to fire, as is the case in the Cerrado, other savannas, and Mediterranean ecosystems. The question is to know... how, where and when To manage the situation, if controlled burns are carried out between March and May, the impact is reduced compared to the dry season. The knowledge for this already exists; what is lacking is legal certainty to apply the technique.
Professor Bráulio Dias, from UnB, comments that the old Forest Code prohibits burning in conservation areas, but the rule is contradicted by other legislative texts, such as the Native Vegetation Protection Law, which not only allows the practice but also considers it a management tool in pyrophytic biomes. [See here an exclusive ISPN interview with Dr. Bráulio Dias]
ISPN's public policy advisor, Guilherme Eidt, praises the debate and highlights the importance of the topic. “We need to work together to approve the national policy on Integrated Forest Management (IFM). It's important to level the playing field among parliamentarians regarding the benefits of IFM,” he states. Eidt also considers it worthwhile to take advantage of other legislative proposals and hold a broad debate in Parliament to consolidate a policy for fire prevention and control, coupled with combating deforestation.
Bill 5014/2020, authored by Representatives Nilto Tatto (PT-SP) and Alencar Santana Braga (PT-SP), for example, prohibits for 20 years the agricultural or urban use of land with native vegetation cover that has been illegally deforested or burned. The ISPN advisor emphasizes, however, that care must be taken so that this discussion does not contaminate or hinder the progress of the National Policy on Integrated Forest Management (IFM), which he considers to be of great importance to the agricultural sector, in addition to promoting biodiversity conservation and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.