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Complete IFFN Issue No. 42 UNECE United Nations Economic Commission For Europe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS No. 42 January – December 2012 UNITED NATIONS ECE/TIM/IFFN/2012 United Nations Economic Commission For Europe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations UNECE INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS No. 42 January – December 2012 UNITED NATIONS New York and Geneva, 2012 NOTE The statements made in the articles are those of their authors and do not necessarily correspond to those of the secretariat or the official views of the author's home countries. Furthermore the designations employed and the presentation of the material of this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. ECE/TIM/IFFN/2012 UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION ISSN 1029-0864 (web version) iii International Forest Fire News (IFFN) is an activity of the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Forest Fire and the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). IFFN is published on behalf of UNECE Timber Committee and the FAO European Forestry Commission. Copies are distributed and available on request from: UNECE Trade Development and Timber Division Timber Branch Palais des Nations 1211 Geneva 10 SWITZERLAND Fax: +41-22-917-0041 E-mail: [email protected] The publication is edited and prepared by Johann G. Goldammer, Leader of the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Forest Fire, at the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), Germany. Mailing address, telephone and fax numbers of the editor: Johann Georg Goldammer Fax: +49-761-80 80 12 The Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) Tel: +49-761-80 80 11 Fire Ecology Research Group E-mail: [email protected] Max Planck Institute for Chemistry c/o Freiburg University / United Nations University (UNU) Georges-Koehler-Allee 75 79110 Freiburg GERMANY All IFFN contributions published between 1990 and this current issue are accessible through country folders and other special files on this GFMC website: http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/iffn.htm Call for contributions Readers of the International Forest Fire News are warmly invited to send written contributions to the editor at the above address. These may be in the form of concise reports on activities in wildland fire management, research, public relations campaigns, recent national legislation related to wildfire, reports from national organizations involved in fire management, publications or personal opinions (letters to the editor). Photographs (black and white) and graphs, figures and drawings (originals, not photocopies, also black and white) are also welcome. Contributions are preferably received by e-mail. iv INTERNATIONAL FOREST FIRE NEWS (IFFN) IS AN ACTIVITY OF THE TEAM OF SPECIALISTS ON FOREST FIRE OF THE UNECE TIMBER COMMITTEE, THE FAO EUROPEAN FORESTRY COMMISSION, AND THE GLOBAL FIRE MONITORING CENTER (GFMC) CO-SPONSORS OF IFFN AND / OR GFMC ARE: The U.S. Department of the Interior The UN International Strategy for Disaster Bureau of Land Management Reduction (ISDR) United Nations University (UNU) The World Conservation Union Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale The International Boreal Forest Research Zusammenarbeit Association (IBFRA) Fire Working Group The IGBP International Global Atmospheric The International Union of Forestry Research Chemistry Project (IGAC) Focus Impact of Organizations (IUFRO) Biomass Burning on the Atmosphere and Forest Fire Research Group 8.05 Biosphere "Biomass Burning Experiment" (BIBEX) v CONTENTS Editorial .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Essay Blazing a Trail: A Review of the Physical, Ecological and Social Drivers of Landscape Fire in an Era of Unprecedented Global Change............................................................................................... 2 Regional and Country Reports Nepal Regional Pan-Asia / Pacific Consultation on Building Advanced National and Regional Capacities in Integrated Fire Management based on Participatory Involvement of Local Communities ...................................................................................................................................... 41 Greece Response to the Wildfires affecting the Island of Chios, Greece, in 2012......................................... 94 Israel International Conference “Climate Change and Forest Fires in the Mediterranean Basin: Management and Risk Reduction” (Nir Etzion, Mount Carmel, 24-26 January 2012)....................... 107 Russian Federation The Forest Fire Season in the Russian Federation in 2011 .............................................................. 119 vi Acknowledgements The Secretariat takes this opportunity to thank the editor of the IFFN, Professor Johann Georg Goldammer of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and his team for preparing this issue of IFFN. The Secretariat also wishes to express its appreciation to the national and international agencies who work together and are co-sponsoring the IFFN and GFMC: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, the International Boreal Forest Research Association Fire Working Group, the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project, the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the United Nations University, the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, and the World Conservation Union. 1 EDITORIAL In following up the IFFN issue No. 39 (2010) in which we published two essays by the environmental and fire historian Stephen J. Pyne the Global Fire Monitoring Center is proud to present an essay authored by a former staff of GFMC – Jessica O’Brien. “Blazing a Trail“ reviews the global physical, ecological and social drivers of landscape fire in an era of unprecedented global change. The essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the role fire in the Earth System, spanning from prehistoric, evolutionary times to the late Anthropocene and beyond. The Regional and Country Reports of this issue are bringing us back to the realities, needs and options for response in fire management. In the Asia-Pacific region priorities are increasingly given to fire management approaches by involving and challenging local communities to take responsibility in local, participatory fire management. Under the leadership of the UNISDR Regional South Asia Wildland Fire Network Nepal hosted the “Regional Pan-Asia / Pacific Consultation on Building Advanced National and Regional Capacities in Integrated Fire Management based on Participatory Involvement of Local Communities” and could demonstrate its advances in expanding principles of community-based forest management to include fire management. Two reports about consultations in fire management from the Eastern Mediterranean – from the Aegean See of Greece and from Israel – reveal the problems that go along with demographic and land-use changes, regional climate change and changing fire regimes – with severe impacts of fire on ecosystems and society. Last not least – the report from the 2011 fires season in the Russian Federation reveals the challenges for managing fires in a country that owns the largest forest resources in the world, which are becoming increasingly vulnerable to changes of climate and fire regimes. Enjoy reading these articles! Freiburg – Geneva, December 2012 Johann G. Goldammer 2 Essay Blazing a Trail: A Review of the Physical, Ecological and Social Drivers of Landscape Fire in an Era of Unprecedented Global Change Jessica O’Brien, Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) Summary The complexity of the interaction between humans, ecosystems, climate and fire makes finding suitable management practices and policy for human societies to sustainably coexist with fire an immense challenge. This process is hampered by failure to understand landscape fire as the function of interrelated ecological, biophysical and cultural components which operate, with feedbacks, across temporal and spatial scales. A recent series of disastrous fire events around the world indicate that landscape fires are threatening societies as never before; impacts include smoke-related health problems, loss of human life and property, loss of biodiversity, the diminished provision of ecosystem services and accelerated flux of atmospheric greenhouse gas. Landscape fire, however, is a critical and essential component that underpins ecosystem function in many terrestrial ecosystems. Across the globe, anthropogenic global change is destabilizing fire regimes with harmful and unexpected consequences for ecosystems and for people. Failure to regard landscape fire in its totality; its drivers, its constraints, and its interaction with humans and the environment will lead to a greater incidence of the types of disastrous fire events witnessed across all inhabited continents in recent years. This paper aims to review recent literature on landscape fire by examining the complex interactions between the physical, ecological and social realms of fire. This is timely given that unprecedented global change is likely to make sustainable human existence with fire more problematic. Introduction The Earth is an inherently flammable planet. Currently there are two dominant forms of combustion:
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