Fire is an important factor in the management of many forests, woodlands and other vegetation types. It can be an efficient management tool for clearing land, removing debris and reducing fuel loads. However, uncontrolled forest wildfire can have severe negative impacts on human health, livelihoods, assets, air and water quality and biodiversity.

According to the Fire Management Global Assessment of FAO, an estimated 350 million hectares of land was affected by wildfire in the millennium year 2000 and approximately the same area is burned on average each year – much of which is forest and woodland, with a wide range of negative impacts on people and the provision of forest products and environmental services. In Myanmar, wildfires are a serious problem with local and wide reaching regional impacts. Myanmar has highest burn rate in Southeast Asia and ranks 11th globally in terms of forest fires. Between 2003 and 2012, more than 17.732 million hectares burned in Myanmar.

Realizing the importance of enhancing the fire management capabilities of all actors globally, for more than 60 years, FAO has made dedicated efforts to strengthen the capacities of member countries in forest fire management. FAO’s contribution on fire management includes the production of Fire Management Voluntary Guidelines (2006) and ongoing work of making fire remote sensing data available combined with other data sets to improve the understanding of fires. FAO is working with partners on a Fire Management Dashboard that integrates remote sensing and GIS data in partnership with other stakeholders around the world.
In addition, over the years, many fire management projects were implemented in member countries. In order to address the issues related to various types of fires in Myanmar, FAO initiates this technical cooperation project entitled “Integrated National Strategic Action Plan on Fire Management in Myanmar”.

Stocktaking and analysis on relevant policy, legal, institutional framework as well as existing fire management practices; and the establishment of a Multi-Stakeholder Platform to enhance enabling environment in support of emerging climate-smart fire management will be contributed under this project.

Under this project, a consultation workshop for the Multi-Stakeholder Platform was organized from 17th to 18th of September, 2019 at the Mingalar Thiri Hotel, Nay Pyi Taw. Totally 65 participants of not only the members of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform but also the representatives from each State & Region Governments and Environmental Conservation Department State & Region Offices were participated to the workshop.

In the workshop, the definition of Integrated Fire Management which is relevant and applicable in Myanmar, and the identification of each agencies’ roles and responsibilities at each level were discussed.

Through this project, FAO will support this first phase to frame the major content, concept and process leading to development of an integrated strategy and action plan on fire management in Myanmar leading to subsequent development and implementation of a landscape fire management system in the country.