Kenneth, to be a problem solver, one must identify what the actual problem is...too often people look at it incorrectly.
Or, were you just being disingenuous again?
Direct causes of forest fires
All forest fires have a direct cause (an ignition source) – either natural (e.g. lightning) or human. Although the proportion of natural fires compared to human-caused fires varies widely between regions and types of forest, overall the vast majority of forest fires can be attributed to the deliberate or accidental actions of people.People light forest fires for many reasons. Some fires are started for practical and beneficial reasons, some are accidental, others are deliberately lit to cause damage. All of these fires have the potential to be harmful to the forest ecosystem or human communities, depending on both the condition of the forest at the time and how they are managed once they are burning.Just how harmful a forest fire can be is strongly influenced by the amount and condition of fuel available for the fire (leaf litter, bark, leaves and branches). In most cases forest management practices help shape these factors. For example:For many years United States forest managers allowed the accumulation of large amounts of fuel in mid-western forests by attempting to totally exclude fire – eventually this created conditions for very destructive wildfires that proved impossible to contain.In some tropical forests conventional logging practices have encouraged harmful dry season fires through facilitating the rapid accumulation of large amounts of logging waste and the drying of the forest floor caused by large canopy openings. There is strong evidence that reduced impact logging can minimise the opportunities for this sort of fire.Thus, humans are often directly responsible for causing forest fires and influencing their destructive potential by: changing the forest conditions, altering the natural fire regime, providing the ignition source of the fire itself and, finally through the management of the fire once it is burning.Underlying causes of forest firesIn many cases, harmful forest fires are a symptom of the same underlying causes that drive forest loss and degradation, such as: perverse economic incentives; ill-defined or inequitable land tenure; failure to enforce laws and regulations; failure to recognise and respect customary law; lack of economic opportunities for rural dwellers living in and around protected areas, and weak or under-resourced government institutions. These factors play a major role in determining how forests are exploited and managed, thus influencing both the likelihood of harmful wildfires to occur and their ultimate destructive potential. Unfortunately few governments have shown the willingness to address these underlying causes of forest fire, degradation and loss.
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IUCN & WWF – Forest Fires Position StatementDecember 2001Page 3 of 4Making fire management work – Prevention, Response and RestorationGiven that forest fires are shaped by a complex mix of physical, social, political and economic factors it may appear self-evident that effective and efficient fire management strategies must be developed on a case-by-case basis. However, many governments continue to pursue a "one size fits all" strategy that places undue emphasis on fighting forest fires, fails to take into consideration the role of fire regimes and promotes advanced fire-fighting technologies that can only be afforded by the world's richest nations. At the same time, failure to address underlying causes leads to the repeated occurrence of harmful forest fires, and escalating expenditure on fire fighting without reducing long term risks. WWF and IUCN believe that in order for a fire management strategy to be effective it must address 3 essential elements:?Prevention – many forest fires need not occur, however they will continue to ignite and degrade forests as long as governments fail to focus on both the direct and underlying causes of forest fires. In practice this means that governments must develop and implement programmes that influence people to modify the way they use fire, for example through enacting and enforcing laws that focus on prevention of fires and through focussed efforts on changing attitudes towards the use of fire. They must also ensure that laws and policies are fair (e.g. result in equitable sharing of costs and benefits and recognition of community-use rights), and seek out and remove perverse incentives that encourage people to start harmful fires. Governments, industry and other land managers must also invest in fire management before the event, equipping forest managers with the skills and resources to gain a sound understanding of the role of fire in forest ecosystems and to develop capacity to manage forests and forest fires in an effective manner. It is equally important that protected area managers strive to incorporate locals into planning and management to ensure that those individuals most affected by conservation activities and fires can participate and offer their input into prevention strategies.?Response – being sufficiently prepared and ensuring an appropriate response to forest fires when they occur are key factors in effective and efficient fire management. To achieve this it is essential to have plans and resources in place prior to the fires occurring. Responsible authorities need to have a range of options available, know which fires to suppress and which to allow to burn, have mechanisms for monitoring fire danger and identifying fires which require action, and have clear responsibilities and coordination mechanisms in place. Firefighting resources need to be readily available and appropriate to the local situation, and there should be an ability to scale-up responses to deal with abnormal forest fires. Resources and procedures are also needed for monitoring the extent and impact of fires and using this information to plan for future fire management and control activities. ?Restoration– after forest fires have been extinguished there still remains the need to prevent a spiral of recurrent fire and further degradation in the short-term, and to help re-establish the forest's original structure, biodiversity and productivity, over the long term. Failure to consider appropriate restoration strategies results in vulnerable people living in ever more precarious situations. Nevertheless, the reality is that post-fire restoration is given scarcely any attention by the media, national governments or international organisations.
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IUCN & WWF – Forest Fires Position StatementDecember 2001Page 4 of 4TIME TO ACT ON FOREST FIRESThere can be no blueprint to managing harmful forest fires. Each situation has its own ecological, social, economic and political circumstances that need to be taken into account when developing strategies to reduce the adverse effects of forest fires on people and ecosystems. Effective and efficient fire management requires the engagement of a wide variety of concerned stakeholders (governmental, non-governmental, community and private sectors) in the planning and implementation of a strategy.IUCN and WWF call on governments and international organisations to place greater emphasis on dealing with the underlying causes of forest fires and take the following 10 positive steps to address the impacts of harmful forest fires:1. Support research and analysis that improves the understanding of forest fires and their associated costs and benefits. Resources must be allocated towards an improved understanding of the country-specific, underlying and direct causes of forest fires as well as the costs of their ecological and socio-economic impacts.2. Build awareness among policy makers, the public and the media as to the underlying causes of forest fires, their associated societal and economic costs and the importance of addressing these in a systematic fashion.3. Mandate and equip forest managers to prepare and implement integrated fire management plans that promote a balance between fire prevention, response and restoration, and discourage strategies that rely too heavily on fire-fighting as the primary means to deal with forest fire;4. Involve key stakeholders (especially local communities and land managers) in forest and fire management planning and, where appropriate, implementation. If necessary, assist these stakeholders to obtain the knowledge, skills and resources they need to participate effectively.5. Develop and enforce compatible and mutually reinforcing land-use laws that provide a legal basis for the sensible use of fire but discourage reckless use, and that take account of social equity, community welfare and human rights issues. The review of laws and economic incentives that directly result in harmful forest fires is an important step.6. Discourage inappropriate forest management practices that predispose forests to harmful forest fires;7. Promote fire management strategies that mimic natural fire regimes as far as practicable and avoid manipulating natural or well-established fire regimes as a means of meeting international climate change obligations; 8. Put in place reliable fire monitoring and recording systems that provide early warning of high fire danger and the occurrence of fires, and include evaluation of the ecological and human impacts of fire (and report annually in an internationally consistent manner);9. Prevent further forest loss and degradation from recurrent fires through investing in ecologically appropriate restoration of affected areas; and10. Analyse and integrate fire management considerations when planning to maximise forest resilience and adaptability to climate change, and include these measures in National Strategies for Sustainable Development.
Please ask God to stop the forest fires in WA, OR, ID and Montana which will be caused by global warming this summer. We need the National Guard at home to fight those fires because we will have a really bad season from the drought affecting all those states. |
