Returning Fire to the Land: Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire

Lake, Frank K.; Wright, Vita; Morgan, Penelope; McFadzen, Mary E.; McWethy, David B.; Stevens‐Rumann, Camille S.

doi:10.5849/jof.2016-043r2

Cited by 125 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…A narrow approach to fire management, informed by a predominant worldview, neglects the historically different forms of knowledge that have influenced wildfire management across the world. Place‐based understandings of wildfire dynamics have been gained through cumulative traditional fire knowledge (TFK), defined by Huffman (, p. 1) as “fire‐related knowledge, beliefs and practices that have been developed and applied on specific landscapes for specific purposes by long‐time inhabitants.” This form of knowledge, which is common to Indigenous communities, functions differently from western or scientific ecological knowledge (SEK), which is based on objective documentation of natural phenomena resulting from observation, building on theories of general interest and applicability (Lake et al., ; Mason et al., ). In many countries, TFK‐based fire management changed significantly after colonisation, being partially or completely replaced by an SEK‐centric management approach (Christianson, ; Pyne, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deliberation for wildfire risk management: Addressing conflicting views in the Chiquitania, Bolivia

Devisscher

Malhi

Boyd

2018

Geographical Journal

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Wildfires are increasingly affecting forest landscapes around the world. In the Bolivian Chiquitania, southern Amazonia, large wildfires during recent droughts have intensified public debate around more systemic solutions to address the possible root causes. While the integration of different forms of fire knowledge is gaining acceptance as an approach to dealing with increasing wildfire risk, little attention has been given to this integration in the Amazonia. In fact, mismatches between policy, science and local realities have curtailed the success of fire risk strategies in the region. To address this challenge, we conducted interviews and focus group discussions with a wide range of actors in the Chiquitania to examine different forms of knowledge and views of fire, and the extent to which these were integrated in prevalent wildfire risk strategies. We found that the risk strategies were in tension between two conflicting understandings of fire. A conceptual framework was developed to capture the configuration of knowledge underpinning this tension. Adopting a more integrated and inclusive approach to manage wildfire risk will require overcoming first this tension through a more open deliberation process within a reflexive governance framework. We proposed three “deliberation arenas” to facilitate this process, which could ultimately support more systemic, inter‐cultural fire management in the Chiquitania and other landscapes with conflicting views in the Amazonia.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deliberation for wildfire risk management: Addressing conflicting views in the Chiquitania, Bolivia

Devisscher

Malhi

Boyd

2018

Geographical Journal

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“…As examples of these strategies, the Karuk and Yurok Tribes have collaborated with scientists using grants to identify forest conditions that support traditional tribal foods and basketry materials. They have also partnered with various government agencies and nonprofit organizations such as The Nature Conservancy to build capacity for restoring landscape-scale fire across jurisdictional boundaries, through the TRaining EXchange (TREX) program, which shares cross-cultural fire knowledge while conducting strategic prescribed burns (Lake et al 2017).…”

Section: Restoring Fire Regimes Through Adaptive Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Escaping social-ecological traps through tribal stewardship on national forest lands in the Pacific Northwest, United States of America

Long¹,

Lake²

2018

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America (USA) have long-standing relationships to ancestral lands now managed by federal land management agencies. In recent decades, federal and state governments have increasingly recognized tribal rights to resources on public lands and to participate in their management. In support of a new planning initiative to promote sustainable land management, we reviewed scientific publications to examine relationships between tribal social-ecological systems and public lands in the region. We identified key ecocultural resources, impacts to those resources, and associated forest ecosystems, and strategies that have been piloted to redress those impacts. We found that many factors stemming from colonization by Euro-Americans have engendered social-ecological traps that have inhibited tribes from continuing traditional land stewardship activities that supported their well-being and maintained ecological integrity. These long-standing factors include legal and political constraints on tribal access and management; declining quality and abundance of forest resources due to inhibition of both natural disturbance and indigenous tending regimes; competition with nontribal users; species extirpations and introductions of invasive species; and erosion of tribal traditional ecological knowledge and relationships that are important for revitalizing resource use. As a consequence, both supply and demand for these forest resources have been reduced, as have the resilience and diversity of these ecosystems. Simply permitting resource harvest by tribal members does not sufficiently address the underlying constraints in ways that will promote tribal well-being. Escaping these traps will require addressing a gamut of ecological and social constraints through cooperative restoration efforts between land management agencies and tribes, several of which we highlight as examples. Because tribally focused restoration strategies generally align with broader strategies suggested to restore national forests in the region, they can foster both tribal well-being and ecological sustainability.

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“…Further, developing understanding of mortality drivers, data collection efforts, and model revision are all likely to be more successful when these efforts integrate the leadership structures, insight into ecological processes, and cultural perspectives of local people (Lake et al. ). We argue that the overall synthesis and especially the framework for devising a conceptual S&T model for an emerging die‐off event (Fig.…”

Section: Experimentation As a Driver Of Conceptual Model Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More examples from tropical systems, nations with greater dependence on subsistence agriculture, other traditional forest uses, and greater variation in human population densities are likely to include management actions and goals different from our case studies. Further, developing understanding of mortality drivers, data collection efforts, and model revision are all likely to be more successful when these efforts integrate the leadership structures, insight into ecological processes, and cultural perspectives of local people (Lake et al 2017). We argue that the overall synthesis and especially the framework for devising a conceptual S&T model for an emerging die-off event (Fig.…”

Section: Experimentation As a Driver Of Conceptual Model Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem dynamics and management after forest die‐off: a global synthesis with conceptual state‐and‐transition models

et al. 2017

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Broad-scale forest die-off associated with drought and heat has now been reported from every forested continent, posing a global-scale challenge to forest management. Climate-driven die-off is frequently compounded with other drivers of tree mortality, such as altered land use, wildfire, and invasive species, making forest management increasingly complex. Facing similar challenges, rangeland managers have widely adopted the approach of developing conceptual models that identify key ecosystem states and major types of transitions between those states, known as “state-and-transition models” (S&T models). Using expert opinion and available research, the development of such conceptual S&T models has proven useful in anticipating ecosystem changes and identifying management actions to undertake or to avoid. In cases where detailed data are available, S&T models can be developed into probabilistic predictions, but even where data are insufficient to predict transition probabilities, conceptual S&T models can provide valuable insights for managing a given ecosystem and for comparing and contrasting different ecosystem dynamics. We assembled a synthesis of 14 forest die-off case studies from around the globe, each with sufficient information to infer impacts on forest dynamics and to inform management options following a forest die-off event. For each, we developed a conceptual S&T model to identify alternative ecosystem states, pathways of ecosystem change, and points where management interventions have been, or may be, successful in arresting or reversing undesirable changes. We found that our diverse set of mortality case studies fit into three broad classes of ecosystem trajectories: (1) single-state transition shifts, (2) ecological cascading responses and feedbacks, and (3) complex dynamics where multiple interactions, mortality drivers, and impacts create a range of possible state transition responses. We integrate monitoring and management goals in a framework aimed to facilitate development of conceptual S&T models for other forest die-off events. Our results highlight that although forest die-off events across the globe encompass many different underlying drivers and pathways of ecosystem change, there are commonalities in opportunities for successful management intervention

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Returning Fire to the Land: Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire

Cited by 125 publications

References 33 publications

Deliberation for wildfire risk management: Addressing conflicting views in the Chiquitania, Bolivia

Deliberation for wildfire risk management: Addressing conflicting views in the Chiquitania, Bolivia

Escaping social-ecological traps through tribal stewardship on national forest lands in the Pacific Northwest, United States of America

Ecosystem dynamics and management after forest die‐off: a global synthesis with conceptual state‐and‐transition models

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