Languages
Pages
Legal
Adapting to Climate Change and Variability: Tropical Forests and Wildfire
Hety Herawati- CIFOR
Tropical Forests
§ 44 % of the world forests are tropical forests (1.768 billion hectares, Grainger 2008)
§ They are most species rich ecosystem (Gentry 1992) § Produce Fmber and non-‐Fmber products § Regulate water and micro climate § MiFgate climate change: sequestering carbon
Fire in the Tropics
Fire § has been part of ecological process of forests § has been used widely as a tool e.g. to: • Maintain savanna woodland ecosystem • Reduce catastrophic fires • Clear land e.g. for converFng forests • Maintain grassland for livestock • Extract forest products
By Heru Santoso
Climate Change § Climate is changing. IPCC AR4: At the end of the 21st century, CC may cause : • Air temperature increase of 1.8 oC (B1) – 4.0 oC (A1FI),
compared to that in 1980-‐1999 • PrecipitaFon change • Climate extreme events (e.g. hurricane & El Nino) characterisFcs
to change
Climate Change and Forest Fire
Climate change may affect forest fire § Directly, e.g. • Through temperature, precipitaFon, and natural igniFon changes
§ Indirectly, e.g. • Through climate induced vegetaFon changes
By Alain Compost
Climate Change Impacts on Wildfire in the Tropics (1)
Global: Overall CC may cause fire acFvity increase e.g. fire occurrence and area burned increase (Flannigan et al. 2009)
South America § Fire hazard may increase in 2070-‐2100 (Liu et al. 2010). e.g.
Amazon: • 50 % of the forest may have higher fire danger
by 2080 (Golding and Be_s 2008) • may be more suscepFble to burning more
frequently (Cochrane and Laurance 2008) • may experience fire probability increase in
2070-‐2099 (Krawchuk et al. 2009)
Eastern South America: • may experience fire probability increase in
2070-‐2099 (Krawchuk et al. 2009) By Yayat Ruchiat
Climate change may increase fire acFvity, for example:
Climate Change Impacts on Wildfire in the Tropics (2)
Africa § Some parts of Sudanian, West and Central , and
Eastern Africa may experience fire probability increase in 2070-‐2099 (Krawchuk et al. 2009)
§ Some parts of West and Southern Africa may have higher fire danger in 2070-‐2100 (Liu et al. 2010)
Asia § Some parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia Insular may experience fire probability increase in 2070-‐2099 (Krawchuk et al. 2009) e.g. o SimulaFon at 2 sites in Indonesia shows that
fire hazard may increase in 2070-‐2100 (HerawaF and Santoso 2011)
Nevertheless, in spite of CC, there will be regions with no fire acFvity change and areas with fire acFvity decreases (Flannigan et al. 2009; Krawchuk et al. 2009)
Non Climatic Drivers of Fire
§ Direct causes, e.g. from • IntenFonal uses of fire e.g. for:
o clearing land o harvesFng forest products
• Escaped fire § Indirect causes, e.g. • Infrastructure development e.g. road
and se_lement developments • Forest fragmentaFons e.g. by logging
and agriculture acFviFes. • Draining peat swamp e.g. for oil palm
and Fmber plantaFons • Land use and ownership and social
conflicts
Adapting to Future Fire Danger Increase (1)
§ Be6er land use planning • E.g. allocaFng lands in or near forested lands
§ Increase forest capacity to adapt to climate change and wildfire Climate change => addiFonal stressors to forest e.g. unfavorable
environment for forests. Forest dieback =>more prone to fire. • Promote connected landscapes • Increase species redundancy • Plant/re-‐plant with mix, less flammable & more fire resistant species • Use seed sources and species that can adapt to future condiFons
By Patrice Levang
Adapting to Future Fire Danger Increase (2)
§ Manage fuel availability and flammability • Minimise anthropogenic disturbances impacts e.g. forest fragmentaFon & logging • Intensify liana removal • Regular forest and understory thinning • PracFce salvage logging • Suppress invasive & fire resistant veg. species e.g. Imperata & Gorse • Tree species and composiFon change
§ Enhance wildfire prevenCon and control FAO (2007): In many tropical countries, there is insufficient wildfire prevenFon knowledge, capacity in wildfire detecFon, and suppression resources, especially in rural
areas. • Other sectors need to be involved in addressing fire • Prevent igniFon sources reach fire prone forest e.g. wider fire breaks and reduce
fire use in agriculture • Improve fire-‐fighFng equipment, knowledge and skills
§ Improve policy & its implementaCon • Improve rule system in governing the use of fire.
The exisFng policies and legislaFons usually criminalise the use of fire and don’t consider the importance of fire for people’s livelihoods.
• Make legislaFons work It is important to collaborate with all stakeholders. There are many examples of success stories of involving local communiFes, e.g. o Namibia: reduced burned areas by 54% and decrease fire incidences by 70% annually o Kalimantan, Indonesia: areas under community control experience less burning o Central America: 1.5 mill hectares of forest burned, almost none burned at community managed forests
• Improve law enforcement
Adapting to Future Fire Danger Increase (3)
Adapting to Future Fire Danger Increase (4)
§ Enhance access to knowledge and informaCon on forests, forest management, and climate change adaptaCon • Mainstream adaptaFon into forestry sector in the tropics
(e.g. Increase awareness: enhancing adaptaFve capability of forest) • Improve access to informaFon on climate impacts on wildfire & adapt. measures
o A number of tools available for assessing future forest fire hazards e.g. vegetaFon and fire related models (LANDCLIM, Glob-‐FIRM, MC1, FDRS), and remote sensing (NOAA AVHRR, MODIS, ERS SAR)
o Many insFtuFons have produced guidelines and informaFon related to forest and fire management, and climate change adaptaFon, e.g. ⁻ FSC, ITTO & CIFOR => C&I Sustainable Forest Management) ⁻ ITTO & FAO => Guidelines for managing FF ⁻ UNDP = > AdaptaFon Policy Framework
• Explore and exchange local knowledge and experiences on nature and fire management, e.g. o Ghana: CommuniFes pracFce fire management e.g. fire break around farms and
forests o Dayak tribe-‐Indonesia has customary laws for using fire.
§ Etc.
Top Related