Integrated and integral forest fire management – Operation Roraima 2013, Brazil

Abstract

In 1998, the indiscriminate use of fire to manage agricultural and forest areas in favourable weather conditions in the state of Roraima resulted in one of the largest forest fires in the modern era, which was immensely aggravated by the lack of preparation of public institutions that are responsible for fire prevention and protection. This event, however, left important lessons and prompted the establishment of new forest fire fighting and prevention policies across Brazil. Fifteen years later, Operation Roraima Green 2013 adopted a new fire prevention and fighting model based on concepts, methods and routines of "Integrated and integral forest fire management". Joint coordination was established to constitute the Integrated Multi-Agency Operational Coordination Centre (Centro Integrado Multi Agências de Coordenação Operacional) - CIMAN Federal - with a situation room to monitor high fire-risk forest areas, namely protected federal, state and municipal zones, public forests and forest areas of national interest. Greater emphasis was placed on the detection of hotspots by means of remote sensing, warning and quick initial attack on behalf of response bodies, in accordance with priorities established by all the involved entities and institutions. A Unified Command Unit was constituted to establish priorities for forest fire fighting and prevention activities based on the doctrine of the Incidents Command System - SCI. Key challenges of integral management were: 1 – Forecasting risk situations; 2 – Fire prevention actions and control of intentional forest burning; 3 – Fire fighting preparation; 4 – Forest fire fighting; 5 – Civil and criminal accountability of offenders; 6- Recovery and reconstitution of affected areas. The Centre also promoted intense flow of information on implemented actions, which allowed perfect integration between the involved institutions.