OPENING REMARKSUNFF 19 SIDE-EVENT
Principles and Strategies for integrated LandscapeFire Management through Collaborative Governance
New York
May 6th, 2024

Tiago Oliveira
PT, AGIF Chairman

On Earth, something is always burning

From: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOD14A1_M_FIRE

LANDSCAPE FIRE GOVERNANCE
FRAMEWORKUNFF 19 SIDE-EVENT
Principles and Strategies for integrated LandscapeFire Management through Collaborative Governance
New York
May 6th, 2024

Tiago Oliveira
PT, AGIF Chairman

Challenges
 Governments are under pressure as fire losses unfolds and GW + WUI expose more people.
 Growing real and perceived value of forest, biodiversity and water will challenge existing system todelivery beyond protection of people, as ambivalence pop’s in.
 Simple solutions and quick fixes won’t work, as complexity & uncertainty steps in Knowledge to tackle fire wicked problem is available in academia / experts but not embedded at
local/national institutions, undermining effective integration of policies, budgets priorities andprocedures.
 Multitude disciplines, sectors, stakeholders, confliting their assymetric power and agendas
 Lack of societal wildfire literacy and institution weakness drives political solutions to short term techfixes that have unintended consequences, amplifying the wildfire problem in long run (Fire Paradox).

Challenges
Risk Governance
Focused on the institutional arrangements of how risk information is collected, analyzed and communicated and how
risk management decisions are taken (IRGC 2005).
Miller B. A. Yung L. Wyborn C. Essen M. Gray B. Williams D. R. (2022)

Move from a trivial simple risk problem, approached by one top-down organization that implement aIntegrated Fire Management system towards a multi-agency policentry governance system dealing with acomplex and ambiguous problem
Harnessing Co2 in trees and promoting biodiversity is not possible only with a Integrate Fire
Management (IFM) System in place, but with a landscape / regional approach with long term budgets
for planning, education and fuel treatment: Strengthening institutional capabilities to be fire-smart (political and operational)
 Balanced budget (prevention and suppression)
 Results are being monitored

Who’s the framework for?
This is a framework for country/regions
policy makers, & institutional leadershipIts scope and purpose?
The framework is a whole-of-society
approach for Integrate fire management,
aiming at a common understanding of goodpractices and processes that facilitate
domestic handling of fire and international
cooperation through well understoodstandards.

… and, why?
More than 300Mha burnt annually are creating social,economic, and ecological impacts. Traditional organization
are being overrun by scale and complexity, demanding
institution evolution to adopt knowledge, redesign of process
and improve articulation, dialogue and integration.
Societies can benefit from an IFM approach in adapted risk
governance, that improve x- cooperation to manage risk,copping with uncertainty and adapting working process(planning, prevention, pre-suppression, suppression andrecovery) going beyond the traditional prevention vssuppression.

What’s the expected outcome?
A significant reduction of losses driven by added expertise on each phase of process (planning, prevention,preparedness, pre-suppression, suppression and post fire) enhanced risk management upon state-of-art
knowledge, and clear set responsibilities, transparency and accountability.
Each stakeholder participates under good governance, where institutional cooperation is agreed upon,communities are involved, and communication is clearer, objective, and transparent and results are monitored
and public reported

To that end, our call to action is…
Valuing rural areas
Active management
Behavioral change
Efficient risk management

Reducebad fire

Reducecarbon emissions

Increment
carbon sequestration

Strengthening the Governance model
Training and Qualification

How can the international community support?
1.

Recognizes the role of integrated fire management and strengthened its governance2.

Set the Ambition to protect people and the environment with a balanced budget covering prevention
and suppression, making sure institutions cooperate and make good use of science, and that results aremonitored: promote widespread use of the framework

3.

The more Nations endorse the Landscape Fire Governance Framework and adopt it, as well as KPI are
monitored, closer we are, globally, to reduce the losses from wildland fire“Fire is the Synthesis of the context. If you want to control fire, you need to change the context”
By Stephen Pyne

In short…
 Wildland fire is a whole-of-society and whole-of-government challenge, asking for good governance, to reduce losses

and contribute to support societies achieving sustainable development goals

 The Landscape Fire Governance Framework (“framework”), aims at preparing communities for better tackling landscapefires, and has been widely supported (FAO, UNEP, and several countries around the world…)

 The “framework”,
 Supports the notion of a multisectoral risk governance Calls for long term dedicated funding with balance budgets (prevention/suppression)
 Calls for a shift in investment from response to prevention
 Calls for improved risk management, strong institutional and decision made by trained and qualified staff
 Calls for community engagement, respecting heritage and traditional use of fire Breaking silos is needed, getting people training and working together, complementing their roles
 Further support would lay ground for broader adoption of the guiding principles
 International cooperation is paramount!

wildfire2023.pt

LANDSCAPE FIRE GOVERNANCE
FRAMEWORKUNFF 19 SIDE-EVENT
Principies and Strategies for lntegrated LandscapeFire Management through Collaborative Governance
New YorkMay 6th, 2024

Thank you
Tiago Oliveira
tiago.oliveira@agif.ptwww.agif.pt