{"id":4708,"date":"2024-11-22T08:07:33","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T08:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/?p=4708"},"modified":"2024-11-22T08:07:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T08:07:02","slug":"brightening-integrated-fire-management-in-the-brazilian-amazon-interview-with-grania-power-uea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/brightening-integrated-fire-management-in-the-brazilian-amazon-interview-with-grania-power-uea\/","title":{"rendered":"Brightening Integrated Fire Management in the Brazilian Amazon. Interview with Grania Power (UEA)."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Grania is a postgraduate researcher at the School of Global Development<\/a> and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research<\/a>, at the University of East Anglia (UEA), funded by the SeNSS \u2013 ARIES Doctoral Training Partnership. She is blending her education in environmental science and cultural anthropology to study social-ecological systems and place-based cultural resilience to fires in the Brazilian Amazon. Halfway through her project, her research has benefited from FIRE-ADAPT secondments at the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia<\/a> (CTFC), in Spain, and the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conserva\u00e7\u00e3o da Biodiversidade<\/a> (ICMBio), in Brazil, where she is currently based. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grania Power (UEA) conducting an interview with a resident of the RESEX Tapaj\u00f3s-Arapiuns, Par\u00e1, Brazil.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is your research about?<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My PhD project is called \u2018Following the light: using \u201cbrightspots\u201d to prevent future Amazonian fires.\u2019 Its designs help me identify and learn from areas in the Amazon rainforest with unexpected levels of resilience to wildfires. They are places that we refer to as “bright” because they host success stories of fire management. This research is divided into a \u2018top-down\u2019 geospatial analysis, to identify such \u2018bright\u2019 places using remote sensing data, and a \u2018bottom-up\u2019 ethnographic analysis, to understand how their successes emerge and persist on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a bit more about \u2018brightspots\u2019<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Brightspots<\/a>\u2019 studies aim to identify locations that defy prevailing trends of ecological damage and loss and demonstrate exceptional successes in conservation. The idea is to learn what is driving the success stories to inform more effective environmental governance for other areas, ideally, up-scaling their success. An example of a landmark study that used this approach looked for places where coral reefs are staying relatively healthy and defying the global trend of biomass loss (Cinner et al<\/em>., 2016<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our study is the first \u2018brightspots\u2019 study to look at fire: successes in fire prevention and management. Hopefully, this study can help create a path for further research into other \u2018bright\u2019 places of effective fire management and wildfire prevention, in the Amazon or other parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you doing on your secondment in Brazil?<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m undertaking fieldwork in the RESEX Tapaj\u00f3s-Arapiuns<\/a>, a protected area in the Par\u00e1 state, in the northern Amazon. The forests in this region are very vulnerable to extensive wildfires during dry El Ni\u00f1o periods. However, satellite data shows that the RESEX has seen a dramatic reduction in burned area from wildfires during this current El Ni\u00f1o drought (2023-2024) when compared with past El Ni\u00f1o droughts, despite the current compounding effects of climate change. I\u2019m hoping to learn from the residents and managers of the RESEX about their evolving fire management and wildfire prevention strategies: what they are doing that is working so well, the values behind their actions, and whether principles from their case study can be applied to support Integrated Fire Management (IFM) in other parts of Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boat by which Grania Power has been travelling for 17 days to visit the communities in the RESEX Tapaj\u00f3s-Arapiuns and discuss IFM with them. The activity was part of the ICMBio \u2018Operation Preventing with IFM’ (Opera\u00e7\u00e3o Prevenindo com of MIF). Boat gently provided by the NGO Saude & Alegria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What are RESEXs?<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESEXs<\/a> are a unique and interesting type of conservation unit in Brazil called \u2018REServa EXtrativista’. These reserves were founded in the Amazon to protect in tandem the livelihoods of traditional communities and the integrity of the forest. Residents of the RESEXs manage the land through sustainable subsistence practices in small-scale agriculture, fishing, hunting, and gathering of forest foods and medicines. These reserves are governed by community leaders, in partnership with ICMBio. Residents are able to live almost entirely off of their land. Then, they have the security of a government agency behind them (ICMbio), doing everything possible to protect the land from outside threats such as logging and land-grabbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In what way does IFM benefit from social science?<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local people have cultural relationships with fire and hold valuable knowledge; for example, about fire behaviour where they live, ways to prevent damaging fire and what areas must be protected. The literature in social sciences shows that fire management plans that elevate these perspectives of local people have more success and this success is more sustainable than more technocratic fire prevention regimes that don\u2019t consider social and local factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social science research has the power to inform more targeted IFM development by providing perspective on what is important to people, highlighting shared values across different stakeholder groups to bring them more into emphasis; and it can document and analyse particular case studies in fire management to inform efforts in other places. Ultimately, fire management is just as much about people as it is about fire ecology, so it\u2019s very important that we build the social context into management plans in a conscious and informed way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A symbol of a dream future, drawn by a research participant in the RESEX Tapaj\u00f3s-Arapiuns during a future visioning activity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Is there any aspect of IFM in Brazil that you think works well?<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IFM in Brazil<\/a> is well-developed and working well when it comes to the prescribed burning strategies implemented in the Cerrado, a large savannah biome that is highly adapted to periodic fires. Prescribed burns are managed by the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renov\u00e1veis<\/a> (IBAMA)\u2019s Prevfogo programme<\/a>, and implemented with the involvement of local and indigenous communities. These prescribed fires are successfully protecting the biodiversity of the Cerrado savannahs from the high-intensity, uncontrolled fires that cause harm and can spread from the Cerrado into other biomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work in the Cerrado is at the forefront of Brazilian IFM, but Brazil has five other major biomes: the Amazon rainforest, Atlantic rainforest, Caatinga, Pampa, and Pantanal. Each biome has a different relationship with fire, so each one will require its own tailored IFM approaches. We are going to see a lot of innovation in the coming years in the Brazilian biomes, arising out of partnerships between communities, governments, and NGOs, to develop IFM plans that are tailored to the local fire realities, and it will be exciting to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you taking home from your secondments?<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot! I’ve been able to network and meet people interested in fire from many different disciplines and agencies. When you’re a PhD student, you can get into your bubble of just reading and thinking by yourself, but when you have the opportunity to talk with experts actively working in fire management, that expands your mind so much! I’m very grateful for the opportunity to do secondments through FIRE-ADAPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More about your current experience in Brazil<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something about Brazil that is catching your attention<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazilians are excellent at creating a sense of community. Whether they are in an office, at a conference, in the field, or at a party, I have been so impressed by the way that everybody comes together with an open spirit, and quickly finds a common cause and a way of having fun and creating jokes together. They bring everybody in warmly, including the foreigners like me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One new word in Portuguese you’ve learned<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Mano’ and ‘mana’: it’s slang for ‘brother’ and ‘sister’, and it’s a way of signalling closeness to your friends and kindness to strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Brazilian meal you like<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arroz com feij\u00e3o<\/em> e farofa: a nice common rice and beans dish with different meats, salads, and toasted cassava flour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A memory of Brazil to keep forever<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working, camping and stargazing at Serra das Araras Ecological Station during the FIRE-ADAPT study hub; and climbing out of my tent at night to see a pack of lobos-guar\u00e1 or maned wolves, with glowing eyes watching us curiously from the edge of the forest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grania is a postgraduate researcher at the School of Global Development and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at the University of East Anglia (UEA), funded by the SeNSS \u2013 ARIES Doctoral Training Partnership. She is blending her education in environmental science and cultural anthropology to study social-ecological systems and place-based cultural resilience to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4708"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4717,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions\/4717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fireadapt.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}