WILDFIRES

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Context:  Europe is battling intense wildfires with countries like Spain, Greece and France struggling to stamp out fires and contain the damage.

More about news:

• Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, and thousands of hectares of forest land burned to the ground amid a searing heatwave.
• Wildfires require right climatic conditions, burnable fuel and a spark.
• Rising temperatures suck moisture out of plants, creating an abundance of dry fuel.
• Drought and high heat can kill plants and dry out dead grass, and other material on the forest floor that fuel the fire once it starts sweeping through a patch. While dry vegetation is the burnable fuel that serves as kindling for fires, the spark is sometimes caused by lightning, at other times by accident or recklessness of the local population.
• As for Europe, the region has been hit by an early fire season due to an unusually dry, hot spring that left the soil parched. Authorities attribute this to climate change. They add that the fires are being fanned by earlier-than-usual extreme temperatures and drought conditions in some parts.
• While fire poses a direct risk to people’s life and property, wildfire smoke, and particularly the concentration of PM 2.5, or particles smaller than 2.5 microns, can also affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
• Wildfires across the world are becoming bigger and more frequent. Experts say that the approach has to change from firefighting to mitigation of factors that lead to extreme fire events.
• In its annual Frontier report this year, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said: “The trends towards more dangerous fire-weather conditions are likely to increase due to rising concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases and the attendant escalation of wildfire risk factors.”
• While strengthening firefighting capabilities, there is a need to tackle factors that make these fires escalate and become worse.

Examples of Indigenous communities practice that can be globally used to control wildfires:

• Australian Aborigines’ use of fire to create mosaic landscapes for hunting and gathering purposes also broke up the continuity of fuels and so inhibited the extensive spread of wildfires.
• Canadian First Nations used fire as a way of managing their territory.
• Indigenous peoples from the Venezuelan, Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon as well as the Brazilian Cerrado have used fire for subsistence activities and the control of savanna plant fuel levels to prevent the spread of wildfires into adjacent forests.
• Brazil’s Xavante Amerindians, are trained in total fire suppression.
• The Pemón in south-east Venezuela use patch mosaic burning to protect and sustain forests in Canaima National Park, which helps reduce the impacts of wildfires in the region.
• In South America, indigenous knowledge is combined with science to protect indigenous territories from wildfire incidents.

UNEP Fire Ready Formula

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), called on global governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula,’ as it warned that incidences of wildfires would rise in the future.

Key highlights of new formula:

• It envisages that 66 per cent of spending be devoted to planning, prevention, preparedness and recovery. The remaining 34 per cent can be spent on response.
• Integrated wildfire managementis key to adapting to current and future changes in global wildfire risk.
• There is a need to invest more in fire risk reduction, work with local communities and strengthen global commitment to fight climate change.
• Achieving and sustaining adaptive land and fire management requires a combination of policies, a legal framework and incentives that encourage appropriate land and fire use.

 Source: UNEP report

What was the need for this new formula?

• UNEP report projected that the number of wildfires is likely to increase by up to 14 per cent by 2030. It is projected to spike by 33 per cent by 2050. It would rise by 52 per cent by 2100.
• The prevalence and behaviour of wildfires is changingdue to numerous factors including, but not limited to, climate change.
• Change in land-use and land management practicesare also responsible for the increasing risks of wildfires.
• The true cost of wildfires — financial, social, and environmental— extends for days, weeks, and even years after the flames subside.

What causes the wildfire?

• Natural causes: lightening, soaring temperature, friction between dry leaves, etc. causes forest fires
• Anthropogenic causes:
• Poachers set a small patch of forest on fire to divert the wild animals which many times leads to such fires.
• Jungle areas are also set on fire by villagers to clear the dry leaves on the ground for easy collection of mahua flowers.
• Villagers burn patches of sal trees in the belief that it will lead to better growth when planted again.

How much damage do the forest fires cause?

• Forest fires can cause a lot of damage to the regeneration in the forests and their productivity.
• Moisture-loving trees such as Oaks and Deodars may give way to other species and exotic weeds.
• Forests help maintain aquifers and continuous flow of streams and springs, and provide firewood, fodder and non-timber produce to the local communities – all these capacities may get adversely affected in case of a fire.
• Forest fires may destroy organic matter in the soil and expose the top layer to erosion.
• They may also impact the wildlife by burning eggs, killing young animals and driving the adult animals away from their safe haven.
• Sometimes, a forest fire may get out of control and extend to human settlements, thus posing danger to human life and property.

What can be done to prevent and control forest fires?

• Forecasting fire-prone daysusing meteorological data
• clearing camping sites of dried biomass
• early burning of dry litter on the forest floor
• growing strips of fire-hardy plant species within the forest and
• creating fire lines in the forests are some of the methods to prevent fires.
• fire linesare strips in the forest kept clear of vegetation to prevent the fire from spreading.
• In 1999, the state government notified forest fire ruleswhich restrict or regulate certain activities in and around forest areas such as lighting a fire, burning agricultural stubble or undergrowth (ghasnis) and stacking inflammable forest produce such as dried leaves and firewood.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-are-wildfires-intensifying-in-europe-8035287/