Decolonizing Wildfire Management 🤔
Contrary to its negative stigma, forest fires in the right proportion could help clear litter from the forest floor, recycle nutrients into the soil, open up gaps in tree stands to promote new growth, and kill invasive species and forest pests. In a healthy amount, the heat from forest fires is even needed by some trees for regeneration.
For millennia, Indigenous communities have understood the tricky relationship between fire and forests. They’ve practiced numbers of delicate cultural burns based on their local wisdom to fulfil their needs. The changes to the #climate , driven largely by the demands of urbanization, are forcing Indigenous people to adapt to new times, and especially much more uncontrollable and unpredictable wildfires.
Thus, it is about time to include indigenous knowledge and communities in the discussion on forest fire management, as they are often the most vulnerable and most impacted.
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Journalist and Communications Executive
1moGreat piece, great paper!