Market-based Options for Supporting Sustainable Fire Management of Fire-prone Cerrado (Savanna) Remnant Landscapes

Abstract

Sustainable fire management of remnant Cerrado (savanna) vegetation faces many challenges in Brazil and regionally, including: the legacy of imposed colonial fire suppression policies; massive fragmentation of the Cerrado biome through agricultural and pastoral development; loss of cultural fire management knowledge and experience; occurrence of severe late dry season wildfires given general lack of appropriate prescribed fire management. As context for addressing these challenges, we first provide illustrative examples of a successful market-based program implemented in fire-prone north Australian savannas, and recent establishment of a complementary pilot program in wildfire-prone savanna in Botswana. We then outline the need and opportunity for developing an analogous fire management approach in Brazilian Cerrado, noting that: (a) there is considerable potential for implementing supportive and incentivized fire management on frequently wildfireaffected lands, especially Indigenous Territories; (b) as demonstrated by Australian experience, such development can be achieved rapidly under conducive policy conditions. Perhaps the key to such rapid transformation is to recognise that everyone benefits - global climates, regional ecological sustainability, and local people both culturally and financially. The paper provides a contextual summary of presentations and technical workshop discussions associated with the conducting of a Special Session of the 7th International Wildland Fire Conference, Campo Grande, Brazil, focused broadly on the theme described by this paper's title.