Batista, Eugênia Kelly Luciano

Fernandes, Geraldo Wilson

Figueira, José Cortes

English

Portal de Revistas do ICMBio (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade)

IGNITE: a tool for adaptive fire management 
Biodiversidade Brasileira, 10(1): 70, 2020 Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade 
 
 
70 
 
IGNITE: a tool for adaptive fire management and biodiversity 
conservation in the Cerrado 
 
 
Eugênia K.L. Batistal1*, Geraldo W. Fernandes1, José E.C. Figueira1 
 
 
1 Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brasil 
* e-mail: biogenia.k@gmail.com  
 
 
 
 
ABSTRACT – Fire has shaped plant evolution and biogeochemical cycles for millions of 
years in savanna ecosystems. Despite this, fire suppression practices are still prevalent in 
the Brazilian savannas and generally result in fire regimes incompatible with biodiversity 
conservation goals. Recently, managers and researchers have discussed and implemented 
fire management alternatives including more adaptive and integrated approaches. In 
adaptive management, decisions are made as part of an ongoing process of review and 
evaluation of results to improve understanding of system responses to implemented 
practices and adjust them if necessary. Implementing an adaptive approach into fire 
management requires the ability to deal with uncertainty, consider multiple management 
options at the same time, overcome institutional barriers, apply innovative monitoring 
approaches, resolve management conflicts and improve the poor interaction between 
scientists, managers and local people. Of course, fire management practices raise relevant 
issues such as: What spatial and temporal patterns of fire are needed to sustain ecosystem 
conservation values and biodiversity, and how can such regimes be properly implemented 
and monitored? To answer these questions and assist managers in decision making process, 
we are developing a management software which is called IGNITE, a free tool, planned 
and structured specifically for fire management in the Brazilian Cerrado. The IGNITE 
should lead managers through three modules: fire management planning, execution and 
monitoring. At each step, users should add qualitative information and enter spatial data 
such as the land cover mapping and areas affected by wildfires and prescribed burns in 
previous years. The software aims to identify areas susceptible to inappropriate fire 
regimes, helping to guide management decisions. In addition, by proposing targets, 
indicators and protocols for research and monitoring we hope to consolidate the adaptive 
fire management and encourage managers and researchers to engage more deeply in the 
process. The IGNITE has the potential to reduce scientific uncertainties and enable, in 
medium and long term, the building of a database for biodiversity conservation in the 
Cerrado. 
 
Keywords: adaptive fire management, management software, Cerrado 


IGNITE: a tool for adaptive fire management and biodiversity conservation in the Cerrado

https://www.icmbio.gov.br/revistaeletronica/index.php/BioBR/article/download/1555/1068

IGNITE: a tool for adaptive fire management and biodiversity conservation in the Cerrado

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