The paper identifies the key factors limiting the effectiveness of current public policies to reduce Brazilian Amazon fires. Among them, (i) the dominant allocation of budget to fire suppression in detriment of prevention, (ii) the geographical limitation of the federal action and the reduced policy making capacity of states and municipalities, (iii) institutional insufficiencies and transaction costs related with fire use licensing, (iv) limited access to credit, market, labor and rural extension, constraints that block the diffusion of fire-free agriculture. It is recommended that policies be restructured to account for their cost and benefit and to include fire-dependent communities in their design and implementation. Progress in complementary socioeconomic policies is also needed.
Brazil (https://www.ibama.gov.br/wildfire2019-eng). It comprises full articles written by the key speakers who participated at the Plenary Sessions, Special Sessions, and at the Technical Meeting on Criminal Investigation of Forest Fires.The opening article, by Johann Goldammer, presents a retrospective on the series of IWF Conferences, from its first edition, held in Boston, USA, in 1989, until the seventh, in Brazil, after a circumglobal journey. The main advances and achievements along the three decades that separate these two Conferences are discussed, emphasizing the changes observed in the fire regimes around the world, influenced by world population growth, socioeconomic developments, and climate change, pointing out the importance of international cooperation for landscape fire management.
After 20 years of implementing actions in Brazil, Bolivia and now Ecuador, the Amazonía sin Fuego Programme has had important impacts on improving fire management. One conclusion is that although forest fires cannot be prevented entirely, their frequency and impacts can be significantly reduced through integrated fire management. In Ecuador, there is now an increased understanding of the need to learn to live with fire, and to protect and manage landscapes at risk while improving livelihoods and the resilience of communities. This article reports on work undertaken in Ecuador since 2017 using integrated fire management, and promoting alternatives to the use of fire in the country’s highland and coastal regions.
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