Fire Management
Fire Management
Fire within forest-savannah mosaic landscapes in the Congo Basin can be both a management tool as well as a threat. If used in a sustainable manner, fire can help maintain pastureland and protect forests, farms, plantations and villages. If used haphazardly, intentional and accidental fires can burn out of control, impacting large areas and threatening villages and farms. Additionally, practices such as slash and burn agriculture, in which forests are burned so that farmers can take advantage of their rich soils, can destroy gallery forest areas which line waterways. These forests are often the only habitats of animals such as the bonobo and other critically endangered flora and fauna.
Our work
The U.S. Forest Service is working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo with local communities to improve fire management. This includes developing land use and fire management plans, establishing village fire brigades and developing a training materials to facilitate a train-the-trainers approach to scale up fire management. In the Republic of the Congo the U.S. Forest Service is also working with the national government to facilitate the adoption of national fire management strategies based on successful work in select communities.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
LAC TUMBA CARPE LANDSCAPE
Since 2009, the U.S. Forest Service has been working in the Lac Tumba landscape in Mai Ndombe Province on improving fire management in collaboration with communities, local government and other partners including SOGENAC, a private cattle ranching company, Mbou Mon Tour, a local non-governmental organization focusing on bonobo conservation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Central Africa Forest Satellite Observatory (OSFAC), and the World Resources Institute (WRI).
The U.S. Forest Service started working in the Lac Tumba landscape to help improve fire management for the protection of biodiversity, including bonobo habitats, as well as to increase carbon sequestration and improve pastureland management. This work has evolved to focus on working with communities and SOGENAC to develop land use management plans and fire management plans as well as offering training on improved fire application and management.
Fire management trainings have been held for communities, local government, SOGENAC, and WWF since 2015 to train trainers and village fire brigades on fire management theory, rangeland ecology and practical approaches for fire application and fire prevention. To date there are village fire brigades trained in 16 communities around the SOGENAC Lebomo concession area as well as a group of trainers from four territories in Mai Ndombe Province. In collaboration with the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government’s PIREDD Plateaux project (Integrated Project for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the former Plateaux District; supported by the World Bank and implemented by WWF), trainers were trained in Kwamouth, Bolobo, Mushie and Yumbi territories.
The U.S. Forest Service is also working on finalizing a “fire package”—a set of fire management tools to support the expansion of fire training within the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as in the broader Central Africa Region. This includes the development of field manuals for fire trainings and the application of fire management, materials for raising awareness about being “fire-wise” within communities, and templates and guidelines for developing land use management and fire management plans.
Drawing on the range of activities and training materials being developed, the U.S. Forest Service and its partners aim to scale-up application of improved fire management efforts across the country and region.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
LAC TUMBA CARPE LANDSCAPE
Since 2009, the U.S. Forest Service has been working in the Lac Tumba landscape in Mai Ndombe Province on improving fire management in collaboration with communities, local government and other partners including SOGENAC, a private cattle ranching company, Mbou Mon Tour, a local non-governmental organization focusing on bonobo conservation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Central Africa Forest Satellite Observatory (OSFAC), and the World Resources Institute (WRI).
The U.S. Forest Service started working in the Lac Tumba landscape to help improve fire management for the protection of biodiversity, including bonobo habitats, as well as to increase carbon sequestration and improve pastureland management. This work has evolved to focus on working with communities and SOGENAC to develop land use management plans and fire management plans as well as offering training on improved fire application and management.
Fire management trainings have been held for communities, local government, SOGENAC, and WWF since 2015 to train trainers and village fire brigades on fire management theory, rangeland ecology and practical approaches for fire application and fire prevention. To date there are village fire brigades trained in 16 communities around the SOGENAC Lebomo concession area as well as a group of trainers from four territories in Mai Ndombe Province. In collaboration with the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government’s PIREDD Plateaux project (Integrated Project for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the former Plateaux District; supported by the World Bank and implemented by WWF), trainers were trained in Kwamouth, Bolobo, Mushie and Yumbi territories.
The U.S. Forest Service is also working on finalizing a “fire package”—a set of fire management tools to support the expansion of fire training within the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as in the broader Central Africa Region. This includes the development of field manuals for fire trainings and the application of fire management, materials for raising awareness about being “fire-wise” within communities, and templates and guidelines for developing land use management and fire management plans.
Drawing on the range of activities and training materials being developed, the U.S. Forest Service and its partners aim to scale-up application of improved fire management efforts across the country and region.
Republic of the Congo
LÉFINI RESERVE & LÉSIO-LOUNA RESERVE
In the Republic of the Congo, the mosaic of forest and savannahs on the Batéké Plateau cover a quarter of the country’s land area. But the role of fire in these landscapes and specifically the ecological consequences of setting and putting these fires out, are poorly understood. Although fires are often considered destructive, they can be used as a management tool by playing an important role in the health of soils and forests and to prevent the spread of future fires.
To better understand the role of fire, and to accurately measure consequences for carbon stocks and ecosystem health, a joint initiative was established in 2014 between the U.S. Forest Service, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Edinburgh with support from the University of Marien Ngouabi. Fire test plots were established at two sites in the Léfini and Lésio-Luna Reserves, which were then burned and suppressed at different times of the year in order to measure the impacts of fire on savannah and forest expansion/reduction. This exercise provided important data on biomass and carbon accumulation, which help to better illustrate the likely impacts of large-scale fire management.
Information gained from this collaboration was then integrated into a simple fire management plan developed for use in and around the Lefini Reserve. The creation of this management plan was a collaborative process overseen by a technical steering committee comprised of community representatives, protected area managers, technical partners and various ministry officials. Throughout this process, the African Women’s Network for Sustainable Development in Central Africa (REFADD) worked with local stakeholders to educate them about the implications of the plan, encouraging communities and especially women, who play an important role in fire management planning, to participate actively in the process. The plan was validated in July of 2018, with hopes that its development and implementation can be used to inform national fire management guidelines and serve as a model for how fire management planning can be carried out elsewhere in the country.
Republic of the Congo
LÉFINI RESERVE & LÉSIO-LOUNA RESERVE
In the Republic of the Congo, the mosaic of forest and savannahs on the Batéké Plateau cover a quarter of the country’s land area. But the role of fire in these landscapes and specifically the ecological consequences of setting and putting these fires out, are poorly understood. Although fires are often considered destructive, they can be used as a management tool by playing an important role in the health of soils and forests and to prevent the spread of future fires.
To better understand the role of fire, and to accurately measure consequences for carbon stocks and ecosystem health, a joint initiative was established in 2014 between the U.S. Forest Service, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Edinburgh with support from the University of Marien Ngouabi. Fire test plots were established at two sites in the Léfini and Lésio-Luna Reserves, which were then burned and suppressed at different times of the year in order to measure the impacts of fire on savannah and forest expansion/reduction. This exercise provided important data on biomass and carbon accumulation, which help to better illustrate the likely impacts of large-scale fire management.
Information gained from this collaboration was then integrated into a simple fire management plan developed for use in and around the Lefini Reserve. The creation of this management plan was a collaborative process overseen by a technical steering committee comprised of community representatives, protected area managers, technical partners and various ministry officials. Throughout this process, the African Women’s Network for Sustainable Development in Central Africa (REFADD) worked with local stakeholders to educate them about the implications of the plan, encouraging communities and especially women, who play an important role in fire management planning, to participate actively in the process. The plan was validated in July of 2018, with hopes that its development and implementation can be used to inform national fire management guidelines and serve as a model for how fire management planning can be carried out elsewhere in the country.
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