By Satyen Mohapatra
India which faces a serious threat of forest fires must take the recent report of the UN Environment Programme seriously. The report warns of a 14 percent increase in wildfires globally in the next eight years, 30 percent by 2050, and 50 percent by the end of the century.
The report by UNEP and GRID-Arendal ‘Spreading like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires’, points out that many of the regions traditionally associated with frequent fire show a decrease in burnt area over the last five years like sub-Saharan Africa and northern Australia, while fires in some regions previously not considered fire-prone have increased like northern India, Russia, and Tibet. It has put the Arctic region at risk.
It calls for a “radical change in government spending on wildfires, shifting their investments from reaction and response to prevention and prepared
India has been facing the growing menace of forest fires due to climate change with more than 54 percent of the area being affected by occasional forest fires, according to the Forest Survey of India.
India reported 345,989 forest fires from November 2020 to June 2021, according to the State of Forests Report, 2021. This is the highest recorded in the country for this period so far. According to the figures, Odisha recorded the highest number of forest-fire alerts at 51,968, followed by Madhya Pradesh 47,795 and Chhattisgarh 38,106 between November 2020 and June 2021.
Massive losses occur to the precious forest resources every year due to forest fires.
Satellite-based remote sensing technology and GIS tools have been effective in better prevention and management of fires through the creation of early warnings for fire-prone areas, monitoring fires on a real-time basis.
The report is released before the resumed 5th session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) convenes in Nairobi, between 28 February and 2 March 2022.
The report is urging governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula’, with two-thirds of spending devoted to planning, prevention, preparedness, and recovery and one-third left for response.
To prevent fires, it urging for a combination of data and science-based monitoring systems with indigenous knowledge and for stronger regional and international cooperation.
Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director has also said, “We have to minimize the risk of extreme wildfires by being better prepared: invest more in fire risk reduction, work with local communities, and strengthen global commitment to fight climate change”.
The socio-economic impact of wildfires cannot be neglected. People’s health is directly affected by inhaling wildfire smoke, causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems. The economic costs of rebuilding areas devastated by wildfires are a huge burden for low-income countries.
Soil erosion, degraded watersheds by pollutants, huge amounts of contaminated waste are all left behind in wake of wildfires.
In a kind of vicious cycle wildfires and climate change impact each other and worsen the situation.
“ Wildfires are made worse by climate change through increased drought, high air temperatures, low relative humidity, lightning, and strong winds resulting in hotter, drier, and longer fire seasons. At the same time, climate change is made worse by wildfires, mostly by ravaging sensitive and carbon-rich ecosystems like peatlands and rainforests. This turns landscapes into tinderboxes, making it harder to halt rising temperatures.”
Besides the destruction of biomass, animal and plant species too are endangered.
Australian 2020 bushfires left billions of domesticated and wild animals dead.
There is a need to understand wildfires and it impact to be able to evolve policies and legal frameworks besides providing incentives to encourage appropriate land and fire use.
The report was commissioned in support of UNREDD the flagship UN knowledge and advisory partnership on forests and climate to reduce forest emissions and enhance forest carbon stocks and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Reducing global wildfire risk is a necessary component to achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development worldwide by 2030), the objectives of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (to substantially reduce disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, health, and productive assets by 2030), and the aims of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 (to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide).