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Forest fires and the law

A guide for national drafters based on the Fire Management Voluntary Guidelines











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    Book (stand-alone)
    Community Based Fire Management in Spain 2005
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    Today’s urbanized societies tend to asks for wildfire exclusion through the strengthening of suppression resources to the extent that available budgets can buy. Unfortunately however, year after year, the experience shows that only a better understanding of the role of fire in the forest ecosystems can help to prevent catastrophic fires. In many places the rural land abandonment is creating the conditions for large fires, because of the huge fuel accumulations that are spreading into former agri cultural lands. To establish data on burning by local people their aims and motivations have been analyzed. The information gathered concludes that 60 percent of the total number of fires in the country can be prevented if controlled burning is carried out together with the farmers instead of just forbidding them from burning. Therefore, awareness rising or sensitization programmes in the rural villages are crucial for the success in fire management when remembering that the local population a re those who cause the fire damages and also remembering that training in controlled burning with the help of specialized teams (EPRIF1.) are organized in the areas where the number of fires is high. Besides the EPRIF activities also other programs are carried out to promote cooperation with volunteers living in small villages by e.g. visiting them and providing economical incentives to them when they become integrated in permanent fire management organizations supervised by the Administration. Urban and rural people can cooperate together in these organizations to prevent fires.
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    Communities in flames: proceedings of an international conference on community involvement in fire management 2002
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    As global concern over the fate of the world’s forests has grown generally, so too has specific concern over the frequency and intensity of forest fires, which have increased dramatically as a result of human activities in recent years. Since the widespread fires of the late 1990s, numerous organizations have supported various fire prevention, suppression and management initiatives. These efforts have indicated that no single actor can independently solve the serious social, economic and ecologi cal challenges associated with uncontrolled forest fires. Importantly, it is now increasingly recognized that, in many countries, local communities can play significant positive roles in fire management. The publication provides long-awaited and first-hand insights into community-based forest fire management. It should prove useful to those responsible for formulating and implementing fire management policies and programmes in better understanding the key issues and challenges of involving loca l people as effective partners in managing forest fires.
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    Guidelines on Fire Management in Temperate and Boreal Forests 2002
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    These fire management guidelines are designed to provide a base 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 are in accordance with the FAO policy and take into account the recommendations of the FAO Meeting on Public Policies Affecting Forest Fires (FAO 1999) and the FAO/ITTO International Expert Meeting on Forest Fire Management (FAO 2001a) and Legal Frameworks for Forest Fire Management: International Agreements and National Legislation (FAO 2002a). The guidelines also address the objectives of the United Nations International Strategy f or Disaster Reduction (ISDR) that has been established by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN 1999), particularly the ISDR Interagency Task Force on Natural Disaster Reduction, Working Group on Wildland Fire. The Working Group on Wildland Fire supports the UN and other international stakeholders by providing an inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary global platform for policy support. The guidelines recognize that many forest fires origina te 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.

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