Search

Wildfires increasingly threaten California’s agricultural sector, posing serious risks to farming, ranching, and food systems. We conducted a survey of 505 California farmers and ranchers affected by wildfires between 2017 and 2023. Main findings show that wildfires’ impacts on producers are extensive and range from mild to catastrophic, with both short and long-term repercussions, regardless of their exposure level. Producers play a central role in community emergency wildfire risk response and management by reducing fuel loads, creating defensible space, and leveraging their fire management expertise for themselves and their neighbors. Many producers lack a robust financial safety net, particularly among vulnerable populations, which points to the need to increase access to recovery resources, including insurance and disaster assistance programs. We find an urgent need for policy reforms, improved support, targeted extension programs, and integrated coordination mechanisms. Producers are our overlooked allies in building widespread wildfire resilience. Enhanced collaborative efforts among producers, fire professionals, and agricultural support organizations are thus imperative to co-create and implement strategies that ensure the long-term sustainability and economic viability of California’s agricultural communities.

Abstract Key Message As the number and extent of wildfires are increasing due to climate change and human impacts, the demand for effective risk reduction strategies is growing. Due to limited resources or management capabilities in Slovakia, appropriate multistakeholder participation could help decrease the risk of wildfires while continuing to implement the principles of sustainable forest management. Thus, we recommend improving relationships with responsible stakeholders and increasing their knowledge. Context Although the frequency of wildfires has declined in Slovakia, the total burned area per year and the average burned area per fire have increased rapidly, mainly due to traditional land management and increasing numbers of natural disasters resulting from climate change. Aim The objective of this study is to assess the participation and management of stakeholders in the region of Podpoľanie, which is the region of Slovakia that is most prone to wildfires. In particular, this study investigates the questions of who is accountable, in what networks, and with regard to what issues with the goal of enhancing efforts to combat wildfires. Methods This single-country case study features an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. While stakeholders’ participation was explored via face-to-face interviews and interest-influence matrices, stakeholders’ prioritization was assessed via an online survey and the quantitative mapping of stakeholders’ involvement, power, interest, and knowledge. Results We separately identified primary stakeholders (e.g., fire departments and state-owned forest enterprises) and secondary stakeholders (e.g., municipalities and community members). Tasks related to efforts to combat wildfires were largely in compliance with legal regulations and other mandates. Nonetheless, some stakeholders (e.g., governmental organizations involved in nature protection or nonstate forest owners and the associated enterprises) lacked the knowledge, experience, or responsibility necessary to perform these tasks. Conclusion These stakeholders should be informed and monitored closely to achieve outcomes that can benefit a variety of stakeholders. We recommend a plan that involves improving the relationships among primary and secondary stakeholders, increasing their knowledge, and promoting effective participation to decrease the risk of wildfires in the region.

Key Message: As the number and extent of wildfires are increasing due to climate change and human impacts, the demand for effective risk reduction strategies is growing. Due to limited resources or management capabilities in Slovakia, appropriate multistakeholder participation could help decrease the risk of wildfires while continuing to implement the principles of sustainable forest management. Thus, we recommend improving relationships with responsible stakeholders and increasing their knowledge. Context: Although the frequency of wildfires has declined in Slovakia, the total burned area per year and the average burned area per fire have increased rapidly, mainly due to traditional land management and increasing numbers of natural disasters resulting from climate change. Aim: The objective of this study is to assess the participation and management of stakeholders in the region of Podpoľanie, which is the region of Slovakia that is most prone to wildfires. In particular, this study investigates the questions of who is accountable, in what networks, and with regard to what issues with the goal of enhancing efforts to combat wildfires. Methods: This single-country case study features an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. While stakeholders' participation was explored via face-to-face interviews and interest-influence matrices, stakeholders' prioritization was assessed via an online survey and the quantitative mapping of stakeholders' involvement, power, interest, and knowledge. Results: We separately identified primary stakeholders (e.g., fire departments and state-owned forest enterprises) and secondary stakeholders (e.g., municipalities and community members). Tasks related to efforts to combat wildfires were largely in compliance with legal regulations and other mandates. Nonetheless, some stakeholders (e.g., governmental organizations involved in nature protection or nonstate forest owners and the associated enterprises) lacked the knowledge, experience, or responsibility necessary to perform these tasks. Conclusion: These stakeholders should be informed and monitored closely to achieve outcomes that can benefit a variety of stakeholders. We recommend a plan that involves improving the relationships among primary and secondary stakeholders, increasing their knowledge, and promoting effective participation to decrease the risk of wildfires in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As socio-natural phenomena, wildfires are exacerbated by climate change and socioeconomic dynamics. However, the role of socioeconomic uncertainty in shaping future wildfire risk and management remains largely neglected. Building on the notion that risk emerges at the intersection of hazard, exposure and vulnerability, we conduct an integrative literature review to identify the most significant socioeconomic drivers of wildfire risk in the European geographical and institutional context and bring this together with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) perspectives on plausible socioeconomic dynamics. To our knowledge, this is the first study to bridge the gap between wildfire research and socioeconomic scenarios to establish a conceptual understanding of future wildfire risk. The resulting wildfire risk scenario space has two main applications: (i) it acts as a qualitative navigator for factoring socioeconomic uncertainty in model-based wildfire risk assessments, and (ii) it sets the boundary conditions for evaluating the feasibility of management strategies. Sustainable land use practices and profitable agricultural value chains can reduce future wildfire risk (e.g. SSP1), whereas land degradation (e.g. SSP4), and socioeconomic disparities (e.g. SSP3) may increase it. As a result, challenges to future wildfire risk management differ significantly across scenarios, leading to paradoxical situations. In scenarios where vulnerability reduction has significant potential to lower risk, socioeconomic challenges reduce the feasibility of implementing the necessary measures to achieve risk reduction. Similar dilemmas may arise in the context of hazard and exposure. By considering multiple plausible futures, this paper emphasizes the importance of accounting for socioeconomic dynamics in shaping wildfire risk and keeping the design of risk management strategies open and flexible in the face of changing circumstances.

Drawing on decolonial thought, this article provides a perspective on local indigenous knowledge and governance systems as a resource for informing wildfire risk policy approaches and collaborative environmental security. In 2019, the Indigenous Territory of Lomerío in Bolivia was heavily affected by wildfires, due to a combination of fires that penetrated the territory from outside and others that spread from inside. As result, the Bolivian Forest Management Agency (ABT) started threatening indigenous people with criminal action for using fire in their livelihood practices. In response, in 2020 and with the support of several institutions, the Union of Indigenous Communities of Lomerío (CICOL) initiated a series of activities to ensure local control of wildfire risk management in the territory. These include a written burning protocol, a fire monitoring programme, water basin and forest conservation policies, participatory research conducted by indigenous researchers about the use of fire in Lomerío and cultural revitalization strategies. The article presents the results of these different strategies and their contributions to creating awareness of appropriate regulations for wildfire risk management by national authorities from the perspective of the Monkoxɨ indigenous people. • Wildfire risk management is a central part of the Monkoxi self-determination agenda. • The Monkoxi are combining traditional and modern knowledge and techniques to manage wildfire risk in their territories. • Multiple causes of wildfire in Lomerio require multiple wildfire management strategies. • Indigenous governance has been key in coordinating actions with external actors to introduce wildfire management innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since February 2022, the National Forestry Strategy (NFS) for the forest sector and its supply chains is public. The NFS addresses in an innovative and science-based way key issues related to forest fire governance such as the integrated fire risk management, the convergence of forest, agro-pastoral and nature conservation policies with fire governance strategies, the regulatory update and the roadmap to open-access wildfire data.

Since February 2022, the National Forestry Strategy (NFS) for the forest sector and its supply chains is public. The NFS addresses in an innovative and science-based way key issues related to forest fire governance such as the integrated fire risk management, the convergence of forest, agro-pastoral and nature conservation policies with fire governance strategies, the regulatory update and the roadmap to open-access wildfire data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First attempt to quantify and map responder exposure to hazardous snags in space and time. • Patch-size of severe or extreme snag hazard exceeded 20,000 ha, or 60% of burned area, after 10 years. • Severe or extreme snag hazard persisted on portions of burned landscapes for up to 35 years. • Dense forests burning severely may exceed acceptable risk, further entrenching wildfire paradox. • Interdisciplinary collaboration necessary to assess all risks in social-ecological systems. Researchers and managers increasingly recognize enterprise risk management as critical to addressing contemporary fire management challenges. Quantitative wildfire risk assessments contribute by parsing and mapping potentially contradictory positive and negative fire effects. However, these assessments disregard risks to fire responders because they only address social and ecological resources and assets. In this study, we begin to overcome this deficiency by using a novel modeling approach that integrates remote sensing, field inventories, imputation-based vegetation modeling, and empirical models to quantify post-fire snag hazard in space and time. Snag hazard increased significantly immediately post-fire, with severe or extreme hazard conditions accounting for 47%, 83%, and 91% of areas burned at low, moderate and high-severity fire, respectively. Patch-size of severe or extreme hazard positively correlated with fire size, exceeding >20,000 ha (60% of our largest fire) 10-years post-fire when reburn becomes more likely. After 10 years, snag hazard declined rapidly as snags fell or fragmented, but severe or extreme hazard persisted for 20, 30 and 35 years in portions of the low, moderate and high-severity fire areas. Because forests are denser and wildfires burn with greater severity than historically, these hazardous conditions may represent novel management challenges where risk of injury or death to responders outweighs the benefits of directly engaging the fire. Mapping snag hazard with our methodology could improve situational awareness for both decision makers and fire responders as they mitigate risk during fire management. However, as more landscapes burn we anticipate increased responder exposure to extremely hazardous conditions, which may further entrench the wildfire paradox as fire managers weigh current response decisions with future challenges. Aligning land management objectives with wildfire management needs, in part by mapping responder exposure to snags and other hazards, could help overcome the wildfire paradox and produce desirable long-term outcomes. This research also demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to account for risk to all aspects of fire prone social-ecological systems as we learn to live with fire in rapidly changing environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfires are increasingly affecting forest landscapes around the world. In the Bolivian Chiquitania, southern Amazonia, large wildfires during recent droughts have intensified public debate around more systemic solutions to address the possible root causes. While the integration of different forms of fire knowledge is gaining acceptance as an approach to dealing with increasing wildfire risk, little attention has been given to this integration in the Amazonia. In fact, mismatches between policy, science and local realities have curtailed the success of fire risk strategies in the region. To address this challenge, we conducted interviews and focus group discussions with a wide range of actors in the Chiquitania to examine different forms of knowledge and views of fire, and the extent to which these were integrated in prevalent wildfire risk strategies. We found that the risk strategies were in tension between two conflicting understandings of fire. A conceptual framework was developed to capture the configuration of knowledge underpinning this tension. Adopting a more integrated and inclusive approach to manage wildfire risk will require overcoming first this tension through a more open deliberation process within a reflexive governance framework. We proposed three "deliberation arenas" to facilitate this process, which could ultimately support more systemic, inter‐cultural fire management in the Chiquitania and other landscapes with conflicting views in the Amazonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement in scientific understanding and computing technologies, fire practitioners have started relying on operational fire simulation tools to make better-informed decisions during wildfire emergencies. This increased use has created an opportunity to employ an emerging data-driven approach for wildfire risk estimation as an alternative to running computationally expensive simulations. In an investigative attempt, we propose a probability-based risk metric that gives a series of probability values for fires starting at any possible start location under any given weather condition falling into different categories. We investigate the validity of the proposed approach by applying it to use cases in Tasmania, Australia. Results show that the proposed risk metric can be a convenient and accurate method of estimating imminent risk during operational wildfire management. Additionally, the knowledge base of our proposed risk metric based on a data-driven approach can be constantly updated to improve its accuracy. • We investigated the applicability of a probability-based risk metric for rapid wildfire risk estimation. • We developed a risk-metric based on wildfire simulations in operational wildfire management tool - Spark. • We achieved a high accuracy with the proposed risk metric while assessing the wildfire risks in Tasmania, Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]