ITTO Guidelines on Fire Management in Tropical Forests: Appendix 1
ITTO Guidelines on Fire Management in Tropical Forests
Appendix 1
FIRE MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
Fire Management incorporates all activities required for the protection of forest and human values from fire, and the use of fire to meet land management goals and objectives.
The basic fire management options that can be considered for application within tropical forests include:
Fire Exclusion – applicable in those forest types where any fire effect would be undesirable and unproductive to the resource management and conservation objectives (e.g. tropical moist forests; fire intolerant plantation-type forests).
No Fire Management Measures Taken – applicable where occurrence of uncontrolled fire may be tolerated as long as no additional degradation factors interfere, such as excessive grazing. Also applied where no alternatives exist because of lack of active fire control capabilities.
The Fire Exclusion and No Fire Management approaches should only be considered where it is known that forest fuels will not build up and result in extreme wildfire behavior and damage to human values and forest ecosystems.
Integrated Fire Management – applicable where there is a good understanding of the impacts of fire on the specific forest types involved; where there is capability to actively manage all fire situations (e.g. to prevent and suppress all undesirable fire); and where the use of prescribed fire will promote resource management and other conservation goals. The application of the Integrated Fire Management option should be given primary consideration where wildfires have the potential to threaten human life or property and other assets identified in management plans for protection.
Integrated fire management measures include the following aspects:
- Fire Prevention,
- Fire Pre-suppression,
- Fire Suppression,
- Training and Education,
- Law Enforcement and the Use of Incentives, and
- Prescribed Burning for Specific Purposes.
