fire management in latin america & caribbean

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Fire Management: Wildland Fire & Protected Areas in the Context of Changing Environments: Latin America & the Caribbean Ronald L. Myers Tallahassee, FL, USA Caribbean pine savanna Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve Honduras

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This is a presentation given in a wildland fire session at the 9th World Wilderness Congress held in Merida, Mexico, 9 November 2009. It gives an overview of fire management in several Latin America countries.

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Page 1: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Fire Management: Wildland Fire & Protected Areas

in the Context of Changing Environments:

Latin America & the Caribbean

Ronald L. MyersTallahassee, FL, USA

Caribbean pine savanna

Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve

Honduras

Page 2: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Primary barriers to effective fire management in

Latin American & Caribbean protected areas:

1. Lack of understanding of the ecological

role of fire in ecosystems.

2. Failure to link the underlying causes of fire

problems with appropriate solutions.

3. Counter-productive public policies and

legislation.

4. Capacity & resource issues.

Page 3: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

• Failure to understand fire regimes and what is

ecologically appropriate for a given ecosystem.

• Failure to understand & distinguish fire-

dependent vs fire-sensitive (= fire-influenced)

ecosystems & their relationships.

• Failure to distinguish between detrimental &

beneficial fires.

• Failure to recognize the role of human burning

in maintaining desired ecosystem states.

1. Lack of understanding of the ecological

role of fire in ecosystems:

Page 4: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

2. Failure to link the underlying causes of fire

problems with appropriate solutions:

• Most fires are ignited by people for the purpose of

maintaining their livelihoods.

• Failure to understand the socio-economic context

in which many of those fires occur.

• Focus on emergency response rather than

underlying causes of unwanted fires.

• Prevention programs that label all fires as bad.

• Lack of integrated approaches to the problem.

Page 5: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

3. Counter-productive public policies & legislation:

• Focus on fire suppression & prevention of all fires even in fire-

dependent ecosystems.

• Criminalize fire use.

• Prohibit fire use & prescribed burning in forested ecosystems

and particularly in protected natural areas.

• Misconceptions about, or narrow perceptions of, Fire

Management.

• Lack of integration & coordination of programs and agencies.

• Lack of resources, knowledge, and capacity to promote safe &

effective controlled burns where permitted, e.g. buffer zones.

• Poorly thought out carbon sequestration projects in fire-

dependent ecosystems.

Page 6: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Dominican Republic: Fire-dependent Pinus

occidentalis forests with imbedded fire-sensitive cloud

forests

Page 7: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Haiti

DR

Page 8: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

• Not understanding that the pine forests need to burn

under an appropriate fire regime.

• Relatively effective fire suppression capacity leading

to large destructive wildfires.

• Escaped agricultural fires affecting forest edges.

Agricultural burning is prohibited, but pervasive.

• Prescribed fire not permitted in protected natural

areas.

• 5-year Fire Management Strategy promotes Rx fire

in plantations, but not supported by current

government.

• Minimal prescribed fire or fire use capacity.

Status & issues: Dominican Republic

Page 9: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean
Page 10: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean
Page 11: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Wildfire, March 2005. Wildland fire use decisions

Page 12: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Cuba: Four species of pine; 3 are endemic; 3

depend on fire. Fire-dependent palm savannas

and herbaceous wetlands

Pinus tropicales, Los Indios Reserve,

Isle of Youth

Wet savanna, Morón

Page 13: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

• Not understanding that some ecosystems are fire dependent.

• Relatively effective fire suppression capacity.

• Prescribed fire not an accepted practice & not

permitted in protected natural areas.

• No prescribed fire capacity.

• Fire ecology research at the Universidad de Pinar

del Río.

• Intensive silviculture in pine forests.

• Invasive species problems: Dichrostachys cinerea

Status & Issues: Cuba

Page 14: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Fire Management

Workshop series in

Cuba

Page 15: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Integrated Fire

Management Plan for

Monte Ramonal

Floristic Reserve

Domingo Ballate Denis, Regional Chief, Silviculture,

Empresa Nacional para la Protección de la Flora y

la Fauna

Page 16: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Training and

research burns at

Monte Ramonal

Page 17: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Prescribed burning to maintain

Cuban sandhill crane habitat.

Pinus tropicalis y P. caribea

Pinar del Río

Isla de la Juventud

Reserva Biológica Los Indios

Grulla cubana

Page 18: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Guatemala: Fire-dependent pine forests &

fire-sensitive tropical broadleaved forests

Escaped agricultural fires in the Petén (Selva Maya)

Page 19: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

• Lack of understanding of fire-dependent pine forests.

• Colonization of the Petén by people with no

experience with agricultural burning. Excessive

escaped fires. Land tenure issues. Fires affecting

Belize & Mexico.

• Perception that once a tropical forest burns it no

longer has conservation value.

• Lack of community-based fire management programs.

• Prescribed fire in protected areas is prohibited.

• Lack of prescribed fire capacity.

• New draft strategy that will recognize prescribed fire

as a management tool.

Status & Issues: Guatemala

Page 20: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean
Page 21: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Honduras: 70% of country is fire-dependent pine/oak and

pine savanna ecosystems. Three species of pine.

Page 22: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

• Huge proportion of pinelands burn every year. Limits

pine regeneration.

• Role of fire in maintaining pine ecosystem not well

understood.

• Former prescribed fire capacity; prescribed fire

accepted as a silvicultural tool by government and

utilized by private timber companies.

• New forest law allows prescribed fire; draft rules for

prescribed fire use.

• Military involved in fire management.

• Fire use in protected areas not accepted.

• Community-based programs will be key.

Status & Issues: Honduras

Page 23: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Fire management

assessment of

Caribbean pine

savannas in eastern

Honduras

Page 24: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Role of indigenous burning (Miskito

Indians) in maintaining desired

ecosystems.

Page 25: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean
Page 26: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Costa Rica: La Amistad International Park. Fire-

sensitive Montane Tropical Forest adjacent to fire-

dependent Páramo and montane grasslands.

Page 27: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Páramo

Montane

forest

Transition

Parque Internacional La Amistad, Costa Rica

Page 28: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Relationship between Lower Montane Grasslands &

Montane Wet Forest

Page 29: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean
Page 30: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Venezuela: Indigenous fires, Canaima National

Park, the Gran Savanna: Conflict of perceptions

Page 31: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Pampas in Bolivia: Parque Nacional Knoel Kempff

Lobo de crin o

aguará guazú

(Chrysocyon

brachyurus)

Loss of the human component

Page 32: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Guanaco chaqueño in Bolivia

Page 33: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean
Page 34: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

1975

Page 35: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

2007

Page 36: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Integrating fire management decisions with

ecology and society

Fire management technologiesFire culture & society

Ecology

Page 37: Fire Management in Latin America & Caribbean

Muchas Gracias

por su atención…

Caras del Fuego

http://www.wiserearth.org/group/carasdelfuego