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Forestry Department Forestry Department Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fire Management Working Paper FAO at the Vth International Wildland Fire Conference Sun City, South Africa (9-13 May 2011) Rome, Italy, 2011 Forest Resources Development Service Working Paper FM/27/E Forest Management Division FAO, Rome, Italy Forestry Department TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 1 LIVING WITH FIRE: ADDRESSING GLOBAL CHANGE THROUGH INTEGRATED FIRE MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................................ 1 OPENING ADDRESS ......................................................................................................................... 9 Jose Antonio Prado, Director of Forest Assessment, Management and Conservation Division, Forestry Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) .............. 9 PLENARY PAPERS ........................................................................................................................... 11 PLENARY PAPER 1 .......................................................................................................................... 13 INTEGRATED FIRE MANAGEMENT AND REDUCED EMISSIONS THROUGH DEFORESTATION AND DEGRADATION PROGRAM (REDD PLUS). Felician Kilahama .... 13 PLENARY PAPER 2 .......................................................................................................................... 27 FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS FROM A COARSE-SCALE GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF RECENT SELECTED MEGA-FIRES. Jerry Williams, Dorothy Albright, Anja A. Hoffmann, Andrey Eritsov, Peter F. Moore, Jose Carlos Mendes De Morais, Michael Leonard, Jesus San Miguel-Ayanz, Gavriil Xanthopoulos and Pieter van Lierop ........................................................... 27 PARALLEL SESSION 3 - FIRE AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ....................................................................................................................................... 41 FOUR YEARS SINCE SEVILLA! Pieter van Lierop ...................................................................... 43 COMMUNITY BASED FIRE MANAGEMENT; EXPERIENCES FROM THE FAO FUNDED PROJECT IN THE PROVINCES OF MANICALAND AND MATABELELAND NORTH, ZIMBABWE. Phiri Maxwell, Zingwena Stephen and Sebele Mthelisi Mahamba .......................... 51 FROM FIRE MANAGEMENT TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT. A COMMUNITY BASED FIRE MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY FROM SYRIA. Said Helal ........................................................ 61 EMERGENCIES CAUSING HIGHER FIRE RISKS; HURRICANE FELIX IN NICARAGUA. Leonardo Chavez .............................................................................................................................. 71 PARRALEL SESSION 4 - USE OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS TECHNOLOGY IN FIRE MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................................ 77 THE GLOBAL FIRE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: TRANSITIONING TO AN OPERATIONAL SYSTEM AT UN FAO. Diane Davies, Shriram Ilavajhala, Minnie Wong, Giuseppe Molinario, Chris Justice, John Latham and Antonio Martucci ......................................... 79 PARALLEL SESSION 12 - INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE AND ASSISTANCE ................. 87 USING THE FIRE MANAGEMENT VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES TO DEVELOP FIRE MANAGEMENT PLANS. Denny Truesdale ................................................................................... 89 iii PARALLEL SESION 13 - INDIGENOUS FIRE MANAGEMENT ............................................. 95 INTEGRATION AND APPLICATION OF TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND MODERN SCIENCE FOR CONTEMPORARY WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT IN TRIBAL LANDS OF NORTH AMERICA. Ernesto Alvarado, Larry Mason, Adrian Leighton, Germaine White, Gary Morishima, Jim Durgl Colin Hardy, Jim Erickson, Laurel James and Everett Isaac ..................................................................................................................................... 97 LESSONS LEARNED ON FIRE MANAGEMENT IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES OF BOLIVIA. Carlos Pinto and Ernesto Alvarado............................................................................... 107 RESERVE PAPER FOR PARALLEL SESSION 6: AFRICA FIRE MANAGEMENT ........... 119 EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FIREBREAKS IN NORTHERN BOTSWANA. G.J. Mafoko and B.C Phillimon ...................................................................................................... 121 REGIONAL SESSION 2 SOUTH AMERICA, MESOAMERICA AND CARIBBEAN ........... 137 EFFICIENCY OF FOREST FIRES PROTECTION IN PINAR DEL RÍO, CUBA (2000 – 2009). Marcos Pedro Ramos Rodríguez and Jesús María Cabrera Reina .................................................. 139 MANEJO DEL FUEGO Y COOPERACIÓN REGIONAL EN CENTROAMÉRICA. Luis Diego Román Madriz .............................................................................................................. 147 REGIONAL SESSION 4 MEDITERRANEAN, NEAR EAST (INCL. NORTH AFRICA), EURO ALPINE ................................................................................................................................. 151 CREATION OF NEAR EAST REGIONAL NETWORK ON FOREST AND WILDLAND FIRES. Kostakis Papageorgiou .................................................................................................................... 153 WILDLAND PREVENTION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN - Position Paper. Christophe Besacier ........................................................................................................................ 157 iv INTRODUCTION Living with Fire: Addressing Global Change through Integrated Fire Management The protection of the world's environment cannot be effective without national and international fire management policies for natural, semi-natural and cultural landscapes and ecosystems that constitute an essential part of the habitable landscape, contributing to the functioning of the global 'life support' system. National and international policies must be designed to meet the specific local and the common global threats from wildfires, to curb excessive application of fire in land-use change and to promote the ecologically sound and sustainable application of fire in ecosystem management and land use. These policies must take into consideration the cross-cutting issues such as emissions from vegetation fires and their impacts on atmosphere, climate, human health and human security, and must be developed cooperatively with all the stakeholders involved in the sustainable use and protection of the environment and humanity. The 5th version of the International Wildland Fire Conference in Sun City, South Africa, 9-13 May 2011 aimed to address all these issues by bringing together interested and affected parties from various backgrounds (http://www.wildfire2011.org/). The conference was conducted under the auspices of the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and convened by the regional sub-Saharan Wildland Fire Network, AfriFireNet. Around 500 people from over 60 countries participated at this event. Building on the outputs of the previous International Wildland Fire Conferences (Boston 1989, Vancouver 1997, Sydney 2003, Seville 2007), the objectives of the 5th conference were to: Provide a forum for fire management leaders, politicians, professionals, researchers and practitioners worldwide to discuss critical fire issues affecting communities, resources and ecosystems and work co-operatively on the consolidation of a global wildland fire management strategy. Strengthen the effectiveness of the Regional Wildland Fire Networks and support their links into the UNISDR Global Wildland Fire Network. Strengthen international cooperation and exchange in Fire Management practice. Provide a platform for the fire management industry, research organizations and fire specialists to display innovations, new technologies, products and methods for wildland fire management, as well as interact with the conference participants (http://www.wildfire2011.org/). In order to stimulate participation from the fire management community, especially from developing countries, FAO sponsored several participants who wrote a paper for the conference. These papers together with other papers dealing with FAO fire management activities presented at the conference are bundled in this working paper. In total 15 papers and an opening address were prepared and presented in this document, see the table of content. Among them are two plenary papers which were developed at the request of FAO. One paper by Dr Kilahama regarding Integrated Fire Management and Reduced Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation Programs (REDD plus) which highlights the potential and need for REDD plus programs to include more fire management including Community Based Fire Management. The other plenary paper by Dr. Williams et all. Is a survey of so called megafires, analyzing contributing factors. This paper established a relation between droughts and vegetation management on one hand and on the other the occurrence of megafires. This indicates that we can expect more megafires with climate 1 change and need not to limit our efforts fire suppression, but also to forest and landscape management. The table of contents of this document with the thematic
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