Linkages Between Forest Fires

Linkages between Forest Fires, Heat Waves, El Nino and Climate Change

2021 was one of the worst years for forest fires since the turn of the century, causing an alarming 9.3 million hectares of tree cover loss globally — over one-third of all tree cover loss that occurred that year.

Though down from the previous year, over 6.6 million hectares of tree cover was lost to forest fires in 2022, similar to other years over the past decade.

And in 2023, the world has already seen heightened fire activity, including record-breaking burns across Canada and catastrophic fires in Hawaii.

• The worst affected are the Boreal forests covering large coniferous forests in Russia, Canada, US, Finland, Norway, China and Japan followed by tropical forests covering biodiversity hotspots such as the Amazon, and the rainforests in southeast-Asia and India.

• Increasing tree cover loss due to fires in the tropics is

causing higher carbon emissions (just as it is in the Boreal forests).

• Previous studies found that in some years, forest fires accounted for more than half of all carbon emissions in the Brazilian Amazon. The Amazon basin may be nearing or already at a tipping point for turning into a net carbon source as opposed to one of world’s largest carbon sinks, the analysis said. The increase in forest fires is largely driven by climate crisis.

• Climate Change and Global Warming are major drivers of increasing fire activity. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have heated the planet by about 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.

• Climate change makes heatwaves hotter and more frequent. This is the case for most land regions, and has been confirmed by the United Nations’ global panel of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

• Hotter temperatures cause land to dry out and help create conditions for more frequent forest fires. This in turn leads to higher emissions further exacerbating climate change and contributing to more fires as part of a fire-climate feedback loop, the analysis added.

• Other climate drivers such as El Nino Southern Oscillation also play an important role in the increase in forest fires. During the 2015-2016 El Niño, for example, tree cover loss due to fires increased 10-fold in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and Latin America. A new El Niño event emerged in June 2023 and is expected to last through early 2024.

• Scientists concur that without steep cuts to the greenhouse gases causing climate change, heatwaves, wildfires, flooding and drought will significantly worsen.

Forest Fire Risk Mitigation

Understanding Risk

• Monitoring, Research, Forecasting, Early Warning and Zoning/ Mapping

• Short Term Measures

• Conduct mapping of human settlements located within fire-prone forest regions.

• Continuously monitor areas susceptible to forest fires.

• Identify regions vulnerable to forest fires and keep a close watch during peak fire seasons.

• Medium Term Measures:

• Develop and sustain community-led networks for early fire detection and prompt reporting to local authorities.

• Encourage the implementation of a Community- Based Forest Monitoring System.

• Long Term Measures

• Establishing and maintaining arrangements to communicate effectively with people living within and near forests.

• Establish and maintain a System of Mutual Aid among nearby fire services and forest offices for sharing/ pooling of resources.

• Hazard Risk Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment

• Dissemination of warnings, data and information

• Systematic data management of data on disaster damage and loss assessments

Inter-Agency Coordination

• Preparation and implementation of DM plans and ensure the functioning of agencies with DM tasks.

• Organizing and coordinating the immediate response

• Coordinate with central agencies

• Coordinating the dissemination of warnings to all, down to the last mile- remote, rural or urban; Regular updates to people in areas at risk.

Investing in DRR – Structural Measures

• Strengthening various forest fire prevention measures.

• Specialized equipment to fight forest fires.

• Strengthening the network of Watch Towers.

• Expanding Fire Detection Systems.

• Ensure incorporation of Fire and Multi- Hazard Resistant features in the planning and execution of social housing schemes.

• Hazard resistant construction, strengthening, and retrofitting of all lifeline structures and critical infrastructure near forest areas and in forest villages.

• Setting controlled fires that mimic the low-intensity fires in natural ecosystem cycles,

• Introducing gaps within forests to stop blazes rapidly spreading over large areas.

Investing in DRR – Non-Structural Measures

• Strengthen the laws and regulations for forest fire prevention and control.

• Improve the institutional arrangements for forest fire prevention and control.

• Promote use of insurance/ risk transfer

• Prioritizing forest fire management in forestry plans.

Capacity Development

• Training and orientation programs for government staff and other stakeholders.

• Incorporating prevention and management of forest fires in the training programs of village volunteers.

• Promoting    culture    of    awareness,alertness        and preparedness.

• Carry out mass media campaigns in forest fire prone areas.

• Strengthening network of community involvement in

forest fire reporting, prevention and assistance.

• Involving forest communities/forest village committees, Joint Forest Management committees.

•
Joint execution of emergency drills with local bodies –

urban and rural in areas prone to forest fires.

Steps Taken to Mitigate Forest Fires

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has prepared National Action Plan on Forest Fire 2018 to minimize forest fires.

• Forest Risk Zonation and Mapping: This is a scientific method for categorization of different areas on the basis of management interventions, allocating resources to priority areas and monitoring the effectiveness of measures to control fire risk.

• Community Awareness: Every state forest department should spend a satisfactory amount of money for sensitization of the state in general and the community in particular.

• Framework for Biomass Management for SFDs which says, “collection of dry woods, fallen pine needles should be encouraged to mitigate the surface fire.” Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) should also be promoted for entrepreneurship generated by forest floor biomass.

• Digitization of Forest Boundaries, promoting greater adoption of the Forest Fire Alert System, Improving Ground-based Detection, Dedicated phone line and Monitoring and evaluation are some technological enhancement methods suggested in the framework for the action plan.

• Funding is provided under Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme, Development of Wildlife Habitats and Compensatory Afforestation Fund

Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).

• The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is used for active forest fire detection to get alerts about forest fires on cell phones through satellite imagery.

• In January 2019, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched FAST (Fire Alert System). FAST will monitor forest fires in India using real time information from VIIRS.

• VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite): VIIRS is a weather monitoring equipment placed in satellites orbiting the earth. It is basically a sensor, that collects imagery and radiometric measurements of atmosphere, land, cryosphere and oceans. The data is collected in visible and infrared bands of electromagnetic spectrum.

• VIIRS is placed in Suomi National Polar Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) and NOAA-20 weather satellites of USA.

• The VIIRS is mainly used to monitor and investigate changes and properties in surface vegetation.

• AVHRR is Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer.

• The combination of MODIS, VIIRS and AVHRR

help in assessing impacts of climate change on the earth surface.

Under the centrally sponsored scheme incentives are provided to the communities, Joint Forest Management Committees, Eco Development Committees for protecting the forests from fires.

Funding is provided under the Centrally Sponsored Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme, Development of Wildlife Habitats, and under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority.

• The funds are used for creation and maintenance of fire lines, construction of water conservation structures, procurement of firefighting equipment,

awareness creation, and incentivizing villages/ communities for protection against forest fire etc.

• Modern Forest Fire Control Project: The overall development objective of the project is to ensure an adequate quantity and quality of forest products from both natural and human-made forest, as well as the protection of soils and environment on lands where the protective and productive role of forests and forest vegetation is accorded national land-use priority. The specific objectives are:

• To devise, test and demonstrate principles and techniques of prevention, detection and suppression of forest fires in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra;

• To determine the technical, socioeconomic and financial feasibility of the application of modern forest fire-fighting techniques in India to enable the

government to take appropriate investment decisions in this respect;

• To institute an effective, useful and appropriate system of fire statistic reporting, recording and dissemination;

• To establish through appropriate fire behaviour trials a Fire Danger Rating System applicable to the major fuel types encountered, suitable for use as a basis for extrapolation nationally;

• To formulate an effective programme to strengthen the fire prevention, detection and suppression capabilities of the forest and rural fire protection authorities in the two States;

• To organize and promote a Cooperative Fire Prevention Programme based on the active participation of rural communities;

To establish a Cooperative Programme of Fire Management with other departments and authorities, including agreements for reciprocal and mutual aid benefits, and to facilitate the integration of forest fire protection into overall development plans.