Fire management in the Brazilian savanna: First steps and the way forward

Abstract

Several decades of frustrated attempts to prevent fires in the Brazilian Savanna (Cerrado) have led to deleterious ecological and management consequences. In 2014, the first Integrated Fire Management (IFM) programme was launched in three protected areas (PAs). The IFM programme considers local practices, ecological information, management options and aims to create landscape mosaics of different fire histories to conserve biodiversity, reduce the prevalence of late‐dry season (LDS) wildfires, protect fire‐sensitive vegetation and reduce conflicts between PA managers and local communities. The first 3 years of imposed fire management regimes led to 40%–57% reduction in LDS fires, improved dialogue between researchers, managers and local communities, generating fire management learning communities. Synthesis and applications. This Integrated Fire Management programme represents a major advance in Cerrado management and conservation, by actively managing fires and decreasing the proportion of areas burnt by late‐dry season wildfires. It can contribute to PAs’ management in the Cerrado and other South American fire‐prone ecosystems. Long‐term monitoring and research are essential to understand the ecological implications and to improve fire management practices.

No Net Loss of Species Diversity After Prescribed Fires in the Brazilian Savanna

“…On the other hand, fire suppression has shown to be ecologically and economically unsustainable (Bowman et al, 2013), eventually resulting in catastrophic firestorms that cause huge carbon emissions and biodiversity losses (Silveira et al, 1999;Bond and Archibald, 2003;França, 2010;Pivello, 2011;Batista et al, 2018;Fidelis et al, 2018). In the last years, fire experiments have increased in Brazil (Dias and Miranda, 2010;Rissi et al, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2018), including our experiment presented here. Here we demonstrate that prescribed fires do not cause losses in species richness of plants and animals, and even bring gains in richness and abundance of plant species in Cerrado grasslands.…”

“…Using fire to manage tropical savannas has been increasingly supported by ecological studies, especially in Africa and Australia (Andersen et al, 1998(Andersen et al, , 2005Biggs, 2002Biggs, , 2003Furley et al, 2008;van Wilgen, 2009;Woinarski and Legge, 2013;Caillault et al, 2015;Archibald, 2016). There is a global consensus among savanna ecologists that burning is essential for maintaining heterogeneity and biodiversity of tropical savannas (Coutinho, 1982(Coutinho, , 1990Bond and Keeley, 2005;Andersen et al, 2012;Maravalhas and Vasconcelos, 2014;Durigan and Ratter, 2016;Pivello, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2018). On the other hand, fire suppression has shown to be ecologically and economically unsustainable (Bowman et al, 2013), eventually resulting in catastrophic firestorms that cause huge carbon emissions and biodiversity losses (Silveira et al, 1999;Bond and Archibald, 2003;França, 2010;Pivello, 2011;Batista et al, 2018;Fidelis et al, 2018).…”

Resilience and restoration of tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and grassy woodlands

“…While fire effects have been studied in the Cerrado (Hoffmann, 1996(Hoffmann, , 1998Miranda, Bustamente & Miranda, 2002), fire management is only starting to be explored more widely (Durigan & Ratter, 2016;Rissi et al, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2017;Alvarado et al, 2018;Schmidt et al, 2018) and mostly with a focus on responses of woody plants (de Medeiros & Miranda, 2005). A particular gap in restoration research, little is known about the role of fire in the reproduction and establishment of savanna grassland plants.…”

Firing up: Policy, politics and polemics under new and old burning regimes

“…However, eliminating fire in all landscapes is now seen by scientists as ecologically, but also socially and economically unviable. There is growing recognition that some ecosystems are fire adapted, such as tropical savannas, and Mediterranean ecosystems and pine woodlands, and that “zero‐fire” policies have led to disastrous large wildfires in these environments as a result of fuel accumulation (Schmidt et al., ).…”