Wildfires have caused serious problems to some Brazilian Conservation Units, what
requires strategic planning to prevent and control fire occurrences. The objective of
this research was to propose a methodology to elaborate fire prevention and
suppression projects, based on the Irati National Forest (Irati FLONA) conditions.
This Conservation Unit was chosen due to its extension, vegetation covering, and
management practices. The Irati FLONA is located in the Fernandes Pinheiro and
Teixeira Soares counties, Paraná State, southern Brazil, at the coordinates 25 o 25'
south latitude, and 50o 36' west longitude. In the project elaboration, the forest fire
risk factors, the prevention measures, and suppression structure were identified,
quantified, and analyzed. For an initial diagnosis and the elaboration of a fire risk
map, environment factors associated to fire occurrences, like vegetation covering,
topography, human presence, and priority areas were considered. Meteorological
conditions were used to establish the normal fire season. Data for these analyses
were obtained from the Paraná Agricultural Institute, local maps, and the Irati FLONA
records. Lately, information on physical structure, machinery, equipments, and
manpower were obtained. The results indicated that the proposed methodology must
follow three stages: environment factors associated to wildfires, fire prevention, and
fire suppression. The normal fire season for the study area extended from May to
September, with 73.8% of the occurrences, and a tendency on increasing the air
temperature and the precipitation, and decreasing the relative humidity in the
analyzed period were also observed. Regarding the risk evaluation, the results
showed that 99.8% of the vegetation covering were classified as high and extreme
fire risk. The human presence was responsible for fire risk in 7.6% of the area and
the priority zones totalized 19.0% of the high risk area. It was also identified the
necessity of accompaniment of the activities developed around the unit, and the
conscientiousness raising of the visitors and neighbors, hence improving the
prevention of human cause fires. It is recommended a data bank creation with
information on visitors and neighbors, and the establishment of partnerships with
regional institutions and organizations. It was observed an improvement, from 2001
on, in fire control equipments, training, and manpower, thanks to the actions of
IBAMA and Chico Mendes Biodiversity Institute, government agencies responsible to
the unit management. The fire crew members have had annual training programs,
and equipments required to suppression activities. The unit has also a partnership
with the local Fire Department for training the firefighters, with the potential to
become, in the future, a forest and environment training center for technicians from
all over the country. The application of the proposed methodology is possible due to
its adaptability and operationally, besides the possibility of a data bank generation,
that will constantly improve the Conservation Units management.
