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An estimated 84 percent of areas that are important for conservation are at risk from too much, too little or the wrong kind of fire. There are a number of steps that communities and governments can take to prevent or mitigate the social and ecological consequences of altered fire regimes. Focusing on decision-makers and citizens, The Nature Conservancy is pursuing a number of strategies designed to raise awareness about the importance of fire as a global conservation issue. This work is closely tied to our efforts to improve national and multi-lateral policies that can be significant drivers of altered fire regimes.
Communicating about the Ecological Role of Fire
Public understanding of the ecological role of fire, and the ways in which humans are changing that role, is vital to accomplishing our mission. The Nature Conservancy has a U.S. Fire Education Program that works with federal and state agencies, tribes and local communities to educate the public about the natural role of fire. For example, we participate in the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Wildland Fire Education Working Team. This team has developed a set of common messages that focus on the ecological role of fire, agency approaches for managing and benefiting from fire, and the need for partnerships and education. Our U.S. fire education work is part of a larger project dubbed Fire, Landscapes and People: A Conservation Partnership.
Developing Supportive Public Policy
The Global Fire Initiative is engaged in several efforts intended to educate and influence multi-lateral and national institutions about the natural role of fire and interactions between fire and climate change, invasives and other factors.
The Global Fire Partnership between the Conservancy, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), University of California Berkeley Center for Fire Research and Outreach, and WWF is working to develop innovative solutions and increase the effectiveness of local, national and international institutions charged with managing fires. Addressing the threat of altered fire regimes requires addressing the underlying causes of too much or too little fire, seeking sustainable solutions, and developing Integrated Fire Management approaches for protected natural areas and surrounding communities to deal with fires when they occur or when they are needed.
In 2006 Global Fire Initiative staff worked with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and many other governmental and non-governmental organizations to develop global principles and strategic actions for international cooperation for fire management. Formerly known as the “Fire Code”, these principles represent a set of voluntary, cross-sectoral and international guiding principles to address the cultural, social, environmental and economic challenges of fire management. The document includes concepts from the Conservancy’s recently published Integrated Fire Management framework. The Conservancy is now involved in efforts to determine how these priniciples and strategies will be implemented.
In the U.S., one of our approaches is to inform the implementation of national policies such as the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. We also work with U.S. agencies and other decision-makers and encourage them to shift some of the resources that are currently used for fire suppression to restoration activities such as Wildland Fire Use and prescribed burning.
Wildland Fire Use—allowing naturally-occurring fires to burn when it is safe and ecologically beneficial—can save firefighter lives and has already saved millions of dollars in suppression costs. In many places it’s not practical to allow natural fires to burn unchecked and so prescribed fire is a necessary tool. The Nature Conservancy conducts 300 to 400 prescribed burns every year, ranging from several acres to several thousand acres. In some places where fire has been suppressed for decades, creating the potential for ecologically and economically devastating fires, mechanical thinning must first be completed before a prescribed burning rotation can begin.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Chris Helzer (a burned pasture in Nebraska); Photo © Mark Godfrey (fire specialists, Mexico).
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