Abstract
Brazil has recently (2014) changed from a zero-fire policy to an Integrated Fire Management (IFM) program with the active use of prescribed burning (PB) in federal Protected Areas (PA) and Indigenous Territories (IT) of the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado). PB is commonly applied in the management of fire-prone ecosystems to mitigate large, high-intensity wildfires, the associated emissions, and high fire suppression costs. However, the effectiveness of such fire management in reducing large wildfires and emissions over Brazil remains mostly unevaluated. Here, we aim to fill the gap in the scientific evidence of the PB benefits by relying on the most up-to-date, satellite-derived fire datasets of burned area (BA), fire size, duration, emissions, and intensity from 2003 to 2018. We focused on two Cerrado ITs with different sizes and hydrological regimes, Xerente and Araguaia, where IFM has been in place since 2015. To understand fire regime dynamics, we divided the study period into three phases according to the prevalent fire policy and the individual fire scars into four size classes. We considered two fire seasons: management fire season (MFS, which goes from rainy to mid-dry season, when PBs are undertaken) and wildfires season (WFS, when PBs are not performed and fires tend to grow out of control). Our results show that the implementation of the IFM program was responsible for a decrease of the areas affected by high fire recurrence in Xerente and Araguaia, when compared with the Zero Fire Phase (2008–2013). In both regions, PB effectively reduced the large wildfires occurrence, the number of medium and large scars, fire intensity, and emissions, changing the prevalent fire season from the WFS to the MFS. Such reductions are significant since WFS causes higher negative impacts on biodiversity conservation and higher greenhouse gas emissions. We conclude that the effect on wildfires can still be reduced if effective fire management policies, including PB, continue to be implemented during the coming decades.
Highlights
Savanna ecosystems encompass around 20% of the world’s land surface, one of the most fire-prone landscapes [1,2], contributing to approximately 60% of gross global mean fire emissions [1]
The number and geographical distribution of Prescribed burning (PB) have increased in both study areas from 2015 until 2018 (Table 2 and Figures S1 and S2), according to the dataset derived by IBAMA/PREVFOGO
When the Integrated Fire Management (IFM) program began, the PB number was low in both regions
Summary
Savanna ecosystems encompass around 20% of the world’s land surface, one of the most fire-prone landscapes [1,2], contributing to approximately 60% of gross global mean fire emissions [1]. The climatological and biophysical conditions (namely, high temperatures, low precipitation rates, and low fuel moisture) in the late-dry-season promote quickly spreading fires, which can become wildfires, resulting in large burned areas, severe environmental and economic damages, high carbon emissions, and high firefighting costs. A recent study showed that the majority of burned area (BA) in savannas was due to fires in the late-dry-season [3], suggesting that an integrated approach by intentionally shifting the fire regime from late-dry-season to early- or mid-dry-season provides an immediate and practical solution to reduce emissions, manage wildfire risks, and conserve biodiversity [4]. Prescribed burning (PB) is a commonly used technique to reduce fuel loads of fire-prone ecosystems worldwide. These management burns are performed within fire management programs, aiming to mitigate large, high-intensity wildfires, the associated emissions, and high fire suppression costs [5]. PB is recognized as a climate mitigation strategy in fire-prone ecosystems since low-intensity fires do not consume all the fine fuel and, release less greenhouse gas (GHG)
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