adapting to climate change and variability: tropical forests and wildfire
DESCRIPTION
Fire is part of the natural ecological processes in tropical forests, and is also widely used as a tool in managing forests. But as the climate of the world changes and becomes hotter and climate events like droughts become more extreme, many tropical forest areas could be impacted by an increase in fire activity. In this presentation, CIFOR scientist Hety Herawati gives an overview of the interaction between climate change, wildfire and tropical forests, and gives a number of recommendations for helping both people and forests adapt to a future in which fire danger is increased. She gave this presentation at the IUFRO Conference on Forests for People held on 22-24 May 2012 in Alpbach, Austria, which was attended by approximately 200 participants from around 40 countries.TRANSCRIPT
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.
