Abstract
In 2012, the Brazilian government implemented the Federal Brigades Program (FBP), a fire policy strategy to hire and train firefighters to combat wildfires. This study analyzed the impact of this program on fire behavior before (2008–2012) and after (2013–2017) its implementation in the Parque do Araguaia Indigenous Land, the largest indigenous territory with the highest occurrence of fires in the Brazilian tropical savanna. We analyzed the annual pattern of fire incidence in the dry season, the fire impact per vegetation type, the recurrence, and the relationship between fire and precipitation. The datasets were based on active fire products derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Landsat and Resourcesat-based burned area products, and the records of the fire combat operations. Our results showed that FBP contributed to the reduction of the number of areas affected by fires and to the formation of a more heterogeneous environment composed of fire-resistant and fire-sensitive native vegetation fragments. On the other hand, after the implementation of the FBP, there was an increase in the recurrence of 3–4 years of fires. We concluded that the FBP is an important public policy capable of providing improvements in fire management activities.
Highlights
Wildfires disturb natural environments, affect socio-economic activities, and put the health and the life of people in danger [1]
The study area corresponds to the Parque do Araguaia Indigenous Land (Figure 1), with an approximate surface area of 13 × 103 km2
The Federal Brigades Program (FBP) is undoubtedly important in the Brazilian environmental policy to reduce wildfires in the Cerrado biome, based on the training and qualification of firefighters to work in protected areas and, whenever necessary, in other areas—federal or state
Summary
Affect socio-economic activities, and put the health and the life of people in danger [1]. Wildfires consume most of the surface organic layers and reduce stream water quality by increasing the inputs of soil erosional sediments and fertilizers [2]. Fires cause landscape fragmentation [3], loss of biodiversity [4], and release carbon stored in biomass and soils into the atmosphere, mostly in the form of CO2 , and as CO, CH4 , and CH3 Cl [5,6,7]. Whenever the dry season is prolonged, fire severity and intensity can be aggravated due to the increase in the dry organic fuels that can cause extensive and uncontrolled wildfires [8,9,10]. Moritz and Stephens [11] recommended that future cities and rural communities should be created considering the low susceptibility to wildfires. 4.0/).
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