Avaliação do risco como subsídio para o planejamento da proteção contra incêndios florestais em unidades de conservação - estudo de caso da Flona de Irati - PR

Abstract

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.