Lightning Fires in a Brazilian Savanna National Park: Rethinking Management Strategies
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DOI: 10.1007/s002670010124 Lightning Fires in a Brazilian Savanna National Park: Rethinking Management Strategies MA´ RIO BARROSO RAMOS-NETO lightning fires started in the open vegetation (wet field or VAˆ NIA REGINA PIVELLO* grassy savanna) at a flat plateau, an area that showed signifi- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biocieˆ ncias cantly higher fire incidence. On average, winter fires burned Universidade de Sa˜ o Paulo larger areas and spread more quickly, compared to lightning Rua do Mata˜o fires, and fire suppression was necessary to extinguish them. Travessa 14, Sa˜ o Paulo, S.P., Brazil 05508-900 Most lightning fires were patchy and extinguished primarily by rain. Lightning fires in the wet season, previously considered ABSTRACT / Fire occurrences and their sources were moni- unimportant episodes, were shown to be very frequent and tored in Emas National Park, Brazil (17°49Ј–18°28ЈS; 52°39Ј– probably represent the natural fire pattern in the region. Light- 53°10ЈW) from June 1995 to May 1999. The extent of burned ning fires should be regarded as ecologically beneficial, as area and weather conditions were registered. Forty-five fires they create natural barriers to the spread of winter fires. The were recorded and mapped on a GIS during this study. Four present fire management in the park is based on the burning fires occurred in the dry winter season (June–August; 7,942 of preventive firebreaks in the dry season and exclusion of any ha burned), all caused by humans; 10 fires occurred in the other fire. This policy does not take advantage of the beneficial seasonally transitional months (May and September) (33,386 effects of the natural fire regime and may in fact reduce biodi- ha burned); 31 fires occurred in the wet season, of which 30 versity. The results presented here stress the need for reevalu- were caused by lightning inside the park (29,326 ha burned), ating present policies and management procedures concern- and one started outside the park (866 ha burned). Wet season ing fire in cerrado conservation areas. There is a consensus that fire has been occurring in even be an important cause for fires; however, studies tropical savannas for thousands of years, shaping the to confirm or to reject this hypothesis do not exist.” landscape and selecting for adapted flora and fauna. It The cerrado biome is the second largest realm in has also been accepted that ancient fires were caused by Brazil, occupying over 1.8 million km2 on the Brazilian natural events, mostly lightning, but also by volcanic Central Plateau, at altitudes from 300 to 1,000 m above activity and friction between rocks. Nevertheless, after sea level (Ab’Saber 1971). Although patches of forest humans came to gather in social groups, they became and grassland forms appear in the cerrado landscape, it the main cause of wildfires, greatly increasing the fire is dominated by savanna forms, in a gradient from open frequency and changing fire regimes, from cool wet- grassy to woodland savannas. The more open the sa- season fires to more intense dry-season fires (Komarek vanna structure, the more fire prone it is. On the other hand, forest patches are not fire prone and only burn 1972, Edwards 1984, Coutinho 1990, Goldammer 1993, when fire is intense. Pyne 1993, Whelan 1995). The tropical humid climate in the cerrado region, However, the belief that almost all tropical fires at with a dry winter (3–6 months) and a wet summer, present are anthropogenic has not been adequately imposes a strong seasonality to the vegetation, espe- demonstrated. Lightning fire outbreaks are poorly doc- cially grasses, which dry out in the winter. At this time umented in tropical ecosystems, although there are of the year, cattle grazers used to burn cerrados to some records (Tutin and others 1996, Middleton and promote grass regrowth and to supply palatable forage others 1997). In Brazil, it was probably this lack of to cattle. Subsistence farmers also used to burn arable recorded fire strikes that led to the opinion that light- areas to prepare the land for cultivation in the wet ning fires are rare in cerrados, the Brazilian savannas. season. Therefore, cerrados managed in these ways As Soares (1994) states “in cerrados...lightning might (almost all, except the natural reserves) sustain little fuel to be burned by natural lightning fires in the next KEY WORDS: Wildfire; Lightning; Brazilian savanna; Cerrado; Fire man- wet season. agement; Emas National Park Hence, especially because of the management that humans apply to cerrados, the burning season runs *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. from May to September, when the herbaceous vegeta- Environmental Management Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 675–684 © 2000 Springer-Verlag New York Inc. 676 M. B. Ramos-Neto and V. R. Pivello tion is dry and more flammable, and fire spreads easily tool, for example, in the North American Yellowstone from farmlands to natural areas. Early fires in May–June and Everglades national parks and in the Australian are usually cool fires and burn the area patchily as the Kakadu and Uluru national parks, among many others vegetation still has high water content. As the dry sea- (Saxon 1984, Parsons and others 1986, Schullery 1989, son continues the curing status of the grass layer in- Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service 1991, creases and fire intensity also tends to increase. Fire Conroy and others 1997, Russel-Smith 1997). outbreaks peak by the end of the dry season (July– In Brazilian protected areas, where an antifire policy August) (Coutinho 1990, Pivello 1992, Mistry 1998). In prevails, the consequence has been the occurrence of the early wet season (September–October), fire occur- periodic and severe wildfires, when fuels accumulate rences decrease, although the vegetation is still able to and fire becomes inevitable, threatening animals and carry a fire (H. S. Miranda, personal communication). humans. In Emas National Park and Chapada dos Vea- Present-day discussion on the causes of wildland deiros National Park, for example, severe fires occur fires, a subject explored since the 1970s (Komarek every 3–4 years (Redford 1985, Pivello 1992, 1996, Piv- 1972, Edwards 1984), is not only a matter of conjecture; ello and Coutinho 1992, Franc¸a and Setzer 1997). Se- it may be important to management approaches and vere wildfires in Emas National Park occurred in 1975, policies for conservation areas. Yet, little concern given 1978, 1985, 1988, 1991, and 1994 and burned 74–93% to the natural fire dynamics in Brazil, and the miscon- of the 132,133 ha of the park, killing a number of ceptions about fire effects in natural environments led vertebrates (I.B.D.F. 1981, Redford 1985, Silveira and the governmental sectors responsible for nature con- others 1996, Franc¸a and Setzer 1997). Furthermore, servation to reject any fire in cerrado conservation ar- the critical problem of invasions of alien grasses in eas, either natural or prescribed. The environmental cerrados (Pivello et al. 1999a, 1999b) could, in some legislation, although very conservative, has permitted cases, be controlled by low-intensity prescribed fires the use of fire since 1989 for managing nature reserves (Pivello 1992, Pivello and Norton 1996). (Federal Decree No. 97635 from 10 April 1989) but, in The objective of this study is to demonstrate the fact, decision-makers in the governmental body rarely importance of lightning fires in the cerrados and to allow fire management in parks and reserves, even emphasize the need to consider the beneficial effects of though it can be a very useful and cheap management these fires in management strategies. It is also impor- tool. tant to stress that we are justifying the use of prescribed Several environmental benefits may be brought by fires to manage savannas, and not tropical forests, as fire in savannas, especially the stimulus to nutrient the functioning and dynamics of these ecosystems are recycling and to sprouting, fruiting, and seeding of totally different; as a rule, fire seriously damages trop- several plant species; it also increases the vigor and ical forests (see Nepstad and others 1999). palatability of a number of herbaceous species. Differ- ent fire regimes (fire type, frequency, intensity, and The Study Area season) may favor distinct groups of species or may consume more or less intensively the accumulated fuel Emas National Park is located in the core region of (Warming 1908, Coutinho 1980, 1982, 1990, Kruger the cerrado biome, the Brazilian savanna, in the SW of 1984, Christensen 1985, Pivello 1992, Pivello and Goia´s State, Central Brazil (17°49Ј–18°28ЈS and 52°39Ј– Coutinho 1992, 1996, Whelan 1995, Pivello and Norton 53°10ЈW) (Figure 1). It is the largest (132,133 ha) and 1996). Such fire outcomes may result in management most important protected cerrado area, because of its ends, as wildfire control, food supply to native fauna, diverse flora and fauna (I.B.D.F. 1981, Redford 1987). weed control, and the maintenance of biodiversity and In this park, cerrado fauna is abundant and easily ob- ecological processes (Pivello 1992, Pivello and served. Several threatened species, including the giant Coutinho 1996, Pivello and Norton 1996). armadillo (Priodontes maximus), giant anteater (Myrme- As fire consumes the fuel, burned patches may act as cophaga tridactyla), pampa cat (Felis colocolo) and puma firebreaks to unburned areas and management burn- (Felis concolor), still occur there (Redford 1983, ings can be used to avoid the spread of wildfires. Still, a Machado and others 1998). savanna landscape formed by a mosaic of unburned Regional climate is tropical and humid, with wet patches and patches burned at different time intervals summers and dry winters (June–August), typical of sa- is able to maintain a great variety of both sun-loving vannas (zonobiome II, according to Walter and Lieth) fire-prone species and those from woodland savanna.