Assessing Wildfire Regimes in Indigenous Lands of the Brazilian Savannah-Like Cerrado

Pedro Melo,Giovana Espindola,Roseli Barros,Javier Sparacino,Daihana Argibay,Vicente Sousa Júnior

doi:10.3390/fire4030034

Pedro Melo, Giovana Espindola + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030034

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Abstract

The Brazilian savannah-like Cerrado is classified as a fire-dependent biome. Human activities have altered the fire regimes in the region, and as a result, not all fires have ecological benefits. The indigenous lands (ILs) of the Brazilian Cerrado have registered the recurrence of forest fires. Thus, the diagnosis of these events is fundamental to understanding the burning regimes and their consequences. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the fire regimes in Cerrado’s indigenous lands from 2008 to 2017. We used the Landsat time series, at 30 m spatial resolution, available in the Google Earth Engine platform to delineate the burned areas. We used precipitation data from a meteorological station to define the rainy season (RS), early dry season (EDS), middle dry season (MDS), and late dry season (LDS) periods. During 2008–2017, our results show that the total burned area in the indigenous lands and surrounding area was 2,289,562 hectares, distributed in 14,653 scars. Most fires took place between June and November, and the annual burned area was quite different in the years studied. It was also possible to identify areas with high fire recurrence. The fire regime patterns described here are the first step towards understanding the fire regimes in the region and establishing directions to improve management strategies and guide public policies.

Highlights

The indigenous lands in the study area are under distinct legal situations and classified as the following phases (Table 1): (i) delimited: lands that had the assessment published in the Official Gazette of the Federal Government and are under analysis by the Ministry of Justice for the issuance of a Declaratory Ordinance of the Indigenous Traditional Possession; (ii) declared: lands that obtained the expedition of the Declaratory Ordinance by the Minister of Justice and are authorized to be physically demarcated, with the materialization of the landmarks; (iii) regularized: lands that were registered at a notary public in the name of the Union and at the Federal Patrimony Secretariat
Our results show that the years with the largest extent of the burned area were folOur results show that the years with the largest extent of the burned area were lowed by years presenting smaller extent, which can imply that the burned area in a year followed by years presenting smaller extent, which can imply that the burned area in a controls the year’s rate
Our study introduced a database of burned area scars in the context of indigenous lands in the Cerrado of the Maranhão Brazilian state

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Fire is among the central disturbance and stress agents in the scope of different biomes. Fire is a potential modifier of species’ diversity, distribution, and composition [1,2]. Even though fires occur instinctively in many environments, humaninduced burnings have been increasingly frequent around the world. Anthropogenic fires in areas destined for agricultural and livestock activities potentially change regimes’

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