Building Fire Management Capacityfor Conservation Action in the

Caribbean

Ronald MyersCaras del FuegoTallahassee, FL USA

Prescribed fire training, Pinar del Río, Cuba

Primary barriers to effective fire management in the Caribbean:

1. Lack of understanding of the ecological role of fire in ecosystems.

2. Failure to integrate the underlying causes of fire problems with appropriate solutions.

3. Counter-productive public policies and legislation.

4. Lack of capacity (training, experience, planning, resources) to implement effective fire management.

a. Failure to understand & distinguish fire-dependent vsfire-sensitive ecosystems & their relationships.

b. Failure to understand fire regimes and what is ecologically appropriate for a given ecosystem.

c. Failure to distinguish between detrimental & beneficial fires.

d. Failure to recognize the role of human burning in maintaining desired ecosystem states and conservation values.

e. Fire ecology principles not taught at universities and technical schools.

f. Failure to understand the relationship of fire to other ecological problems, i.e. invasive species, climate change, forest plagues.

1. Lack of understanding of the ecological role of fire in ecosystems:

The Role of Fire in Caribbean Ecosystems

• Fire-dependent = require fire

• Fire-sensitive = fire detrimental, but biodiversity may depend of fire disturbances

• Fire-independent = fuels not available to burn and/or limited ignitions

Fire-Dependent Ecosystems

• Ecosystems where fire is essential. If fire is removed, or if the fire regime is altered beyond its normal range of variability, the ecosystem changes to something else; habitats and species are lost.

•Plants and animals have adaptations that allow them to survive fire, and reproduction and growth may be stimulated by fire.

• Fire-prone, highly flammable.

• Ecosystem structure & plant architecture facilitate fire’s spread.

Fire-sensitive Ecosystems• Ecosystem structure & composition tend to inhibit

ignition & fire’s spread.• Species lack adaptations to respond to fire.• Fire can influence ecosystem structure, relative

abundance of species, and/or limit ecosystem extent.• Fire may create habitats by initiating or affecting

succession, i.e. fire does plays an ecological role as an disturbance event.

• If fires are too frequent or too large, they can be damaging and cause ecosystem shifts to more fire-prone vegetation.

Fire-independent Ecosystems

• Ecosystems where fire plays little or no role.

• Too cold, too dry, or too wet to burn.

Examplesin the Caribbean

Quemado conalta frecencia

No ha quemadopor varios años

Parque Nacional Sierra de Bahoruco, República Dominicana

Pinus occidentalis

Ecosistemas dependientes al fuego:

Moran, Cuba

Isla de Andros, Bahamas

Humedales /Wetlands

Nariva Swamp, Trinidad

Fire-dependent ecosystems in the Caribbean:

Cuban Pinelands

Pinus tropicalis on the Isle of Youth

Cuban Sandhill Crane

Fire-maintained ecosystems in the Caribbean:

Palm Forests & Savannas: Palma barrigona(Colpothrinax wrightii), Isle of Youth, Cuba Cuban Parrot

Amazona leucocephalapalmarum

Pinus maestrensis in the Sierra Maestra, Cuba

Not fire-dependent

Relationship between fire-dependent pineyards (pine on limestone) & fire-sensitive coppice (subtropical moist forest), Andros National Park, the Bahamas.

1st Burn

Fire-sensitive ecosystems—tropical/subtropical dry to wet forests

Second burn

Invasive species/flammability feedback

What is a Fire Regime?• A set of recurring conditions of fire

that characterize a given ecosystem.

Rio Bravo, Belize

Components of a Fire Regime

• Fire type: ground, surface, crowning• Frequency = how often on average fire

returns to a given location• Fire Behavior = intensity and rate of spread• Burn Severity = impact of heat on the biota

and soils• Timing = season or in relation to meteorological

events• Size and Pattern = how fire burns across the

landscape

What controls fire regimes?• Fuels• Vegetation• Climate (wet/dry cycles)• Ignition sources• Ignition frequency• Landscape context = juxtaposition of

vegetation/fuel types/barriers

What is an altered fire regime?

• A fire regime that has been altered by human activities through fire suppression and prevention, or excessive burning/inappropriate burning, or habitat fragmentation, that stress the ecological integrity of ecosystems and conservation or resource targets or objectives.

What is a prescribed fire regime?

A repeated pattern of controlledburning designed to produce a desired or predicted outcome.

• Tool• Mimic natural process

2. Failure to integrate the underlying causes of fire problems with appropriate solutions:

a. Many fires are ignited by people for the purpose of maintaining their livelihoods.

b. Failure to understand and address the socio-economic context in which many fires occur.

c. Focus on emergency response rather than underlying causes.

d. Fire prevention programs that label all fires as bad.e. Lack of integrated approaches to the problem.

3. Counter-productive public policies & legislation:

a. Focus on fire suppression & prevention of all fires even in fire-dependent ecosystems rather than how appropriate burning can be done in those ecosystems.

b. Criminalize fire use in all cases.c. Prohibit fire use & prescribed burning in protected natural

areas.d. Misconceptions about, or narrow perceptions of, Fire

Management (Manejo del Fuego).e. Lack of integration & coordination of programs and

agencies.f. Lack of resources, knowledge, and capacity to promote

safe & effective controlled burns where permitted.

Strategies to develop appropriatefire policies & strategies:

Conceptual framework:

- Integrated Fire Management

- Community-based Fire Management

IntegratedFire

Management

Fire Sciences:Ecology, Fuels/Fire Behavior

The Integrated Fire Management Triangle

Integrated Fire

Management

Supporting Policies

The Social Component

IntegratedFire

Management

Community-based Fire Management

Integral is the involvement of local communities in decisions and actions regarding the management and use of fire for ecologically sustainable products and services.

Agriculture fires in the Peten, Guatemala.Tropical Moist Forest: Colonization by people lacking a tradition of fire use.

Two Faces of Fire message in communities that need to use fire and/or live in ecosystems that need to burn.

Fuego Bueno

Fuego Malo http://es.wiserearth.org/group/carasdelfuego

Materials promoting the safe use offire in protected area buffer zones.

4. Lack of technical capacity &training in fire behavior, fire use, planning &integration.

The Fire Management Component

IntegratedFire

Management

Key Strategy: Change perceptions by focusing on people

Identify, train, and empower key individuals at multiple levels who will promote and disseminate new concepts & approaches to Fire Management & Invasive Species.

Strategies: International information exchanges and technology transfers

Belize

Dominican Republic

Costa Rica

Belize

Changing perceptions & actions via:

• Presentations of concepts & issues to high-leveldecision-makers (i.e. the ministerial level) & academics.

• Documentation of issues via publications & websites.

• Workshops & conferences.

• Technical training courses.

• One-on-one mentoring of key individuals.

• Regional and local working groups.

• On-the-ground demonstration projects.

• Research projects.

Scientists

Laws, Rules, Funding, Incentives, Governmental Actions

Policy

A Network connects people & places with policy and on-the-ground practices

Experts Network of ProjectsAccelerated learning & practice

ProjectCommunity/stakeholder involvement, tangible results,

demonstration areas

¡Muchas Gracias!

Fire Management Code = Voluntary international guidelines for managing vegetation fires. Coordinated by FAO. Finalized in 2007.

Accord for the International Cooperation on Fire Management = Concept to implement the Fire Management Code. Proposed by the Global Fire Monitoring Center & FAO. Finalized in 2007.

Networks & Multi-lateral efforts:

Regional Wildland Fire Networks (4): North America (Mexico), Central America, South America, & the Caribbean. Coordinated by FAO.