Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
FAO Guidelines on Fire Management in Temperate and Boreal Forests
The FAO Guidelines on Fire Management in Temperate and Boreal Forests are designed to provide information for policy makers and managers at various levels to develop programs and projects in which the specific national, socio-economic, and natural problems related to fire in temperate and boreal natural and planted forests will be addressed. The scope of the guidelines is to assist countries in developing programs for reducing damage caused by fire; and to help forest managers and rural residents to safely use and take advantage of the beneficial effects of fire in land-use systems. The guidelines recognize that many forest fires originate in agricultural and pastoral systems; and in degraded vegetation, outside of forest areas. Therefore, fire management on former and degraded forest lands may help to re-establish productive forests and to safeguard the success of reforestation programs. The present paper is based on work carried out by a team of experts working under the overall coordination of FAO and the Global Fire Monitoring Center, Germany.
The FAO Guidelines are complementary to:
- the ITTO Guidelines on Fire Management in Tropical Forests
- the FAO Handbook on Forest Fire Protection as a Technical Guide For The Mediterranean Basin <FAO/Cemagref: Guide technique international Protection des forêts contre l’incendie. Fiches techniques pour les pays du Bassin Méditerranée>
- the WHO/WMO/UNEP Health Guidelines for Vegetation Fire
- Fire Management Handbook for Subsahara Africa (GFMC, in press)
The paper has not been published in a final version. It is considered to be open for discussion and additional inputs that may be included successively.
