• Overview
  • Agenda

Frontiers - Wildfires in Latin America: a burning issue

Date: 24 October 2022. 10:00 am (Panama Time, GMT - 5)

Link to registration: https://forms.gle/UZXBw6RVMftJazk29

Link to YouTube

In the context of the launch of the Spanish version of the UNEP report Frontiers 2022: Noise, Blazes and Mismatches, the Subprogramme Science and Policy, with the support of REDD+, is organizing this event with a special focus on the chapter dedicated to wildfires. This chapter addresses the role of climate change and human influence and the impacts of wildfires on the environment and human health, as well as measures that can help prevent, respond to, and build resilience to wildfires.

In this regard, a specialized panel has been called to provide a regional voice to contribute a holistic view and encourage a discussion on the challenges involved in this issue.

Panelists:

Livia Carvalho Moura, co-author of the Frontiers 2022 report. She has a degree in geography and a doctorate in ecology, she is a specialist in the Cerrado biome (Brazilian savannah), local ecological knowledge and integrated fire management (MIF). She currently works as a technical advisor at the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) in Brasilia (Federal District), Brazil, where she manages and monitors community projects aimed at conservation and environmental sustainability, collaborates with fire agendas, productive chains of sociobiodiversity, gender, environmental changes and public policies.

Ane Alencar is director of Sciences at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). She has a degree in Geography from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), a Master's degree in Environmental Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System from Boston University and a Ph.D. in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida. Her main research topic of her has been understanding the impacts of climate change and forest fragmentation caused by deforestation on the occurrence and increase of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon. Her research on her involves the development of land use scenarios as a tool to support public policy discussions that encourage the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Eduardo Cruz Castañeda is an Agronomy Engineer, he has served as Forestry Director of Fire Management at the Ministry of Environment and Territorial Development in Jalisco from 2013 to January 2019. He has been Chief of Operations and Commander of relevant fire incidents from 1998 to 2018 in several states of the republic. He is a member of the National Incident Management Team, of the National and International Group of Instructors specialized in Fire Management, assisting in the countries of Central and South America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Paraguay). He currently works as Fire Management Manager at the National Forestry Commission of Mexico.

Presentation of the event: Francesco Gaetani: Science-Policy Subprogram Coordinator (UNEP Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean)

Ane Alencar, from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) Brazil and MapBiomas will present: Situation of fires in South America in terms of burned area, analyzing the correlation with land use change over the last 20 years.

Eduardo Cruz Castaneda, Fire Management Manager -CONAFOR - Mexico, will present: The challenges for countries in forest fire risk management. Description of the capabilities needed for risk assessment, prevention, forecasting, response, monitoring and restoration, taking into account the complexity of horizontal and vertical coordination.

Livia Carvalho Moura, from the Institute of Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) Brazil and co-author of the report, will present: Work with indigenous and non-indigenous communities to reduce the risk of fires in rural areas.

Q&A session

Closing remarks by UNEP