Forest Fires, Climate Change and Community Based Fire
Management in Bolivia
Veronica Ibarnegaray, Fundacion Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN), Km. 7 y 1/2 Doble Vía a la Guardia—Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, Bolivia, vibarnegaray@fan-bo.org; Carlos Pinto, Fundacion Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN), Km. 7 y 1/2 Doble Vía a
la Guardia - Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, cpinto@fan-bo.org
Abstract—Bolivia is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, with nearly half of its territory
covered by forest. Yet, in the last decade, forest fires have become a major threat to biodiversity and human
livelihoods. Fires have burned around 24.5 million hectares of forest and grassland over the past 13 years,
showing an increasing trend in burned area and a cyclical pattern of extreme fire seasons which occur every
two to three years with devastating consequences for the entire country.
The main causes of forest fires in Bolivia are related to human activities, such as traditional slash-and-burn
agriculture, grassland burning for livestock management and the burning of piled biomass from mechanized
agriculture. Climate change adds to these threats, with warmer and drier conditions that increase the risk
of forest fires.
Facing this situation, Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN) works together with local authorities since
2011 on a pilot initiative of community-based fire management and climate change adaptation around
protected areas in the Chiquitano Dry Forest ecoregion in the department of Santa Cruz. This initiative is currently being replicated in the Northern Bolivian Amazon region in the department of Beni.
These initiatives have increased the level of participation and coordination among local communities to
address forest fires and climate change through the establishment of inter-community fire management
committees, which include indigenous and peasant communities, neighboring ranches and Mennonite colonies. Communities are adopting best practices of fire use in their agricultural activities and are actively
involved in the planning and implementation of actions to prevent and combat forest fires. Controlled burns
are scheduled and conducted in a coordinated way with the community, and fire-fighting brigades have been
created to strengthen capacity for quick response of communities to prevent larger fires.
An early warning system of fire risk is being implemented at regional and community level, enabling to conduct agricultural burnings during days with lower risk to reduce probabilities of uncontrolled fires. Also,
institutions involved in forest fire management are able to take better informed decisions, as they are provided with near real time information on fire risk, active fires and burned areas, as well as historical information,
which is available on a web-based system.
Additional Keywords: fire risk early warning system, controlled burns, fire management committees
In: Keane, Robert E.; Jolly, Matt; Parsons, Russell; Riley, Karin. 2015. Proceedings
of the large wildland fires conference; May 19-23, 2014; Missoula, MT. Proc.
RMRS-P-73. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky
Mountain Research Station. 345 p.
338
The content of this paper reflects the views of the authors, who are responsible for the
facts and accuracy of the information presented herein.
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-73. 2015.