Wildland fire regimes are primarily driven by climate/weather, fuels and people. All of these factors are dynamic and their variable interactions create a mosaic of fire regimes around the world. Climate change will have a substantial impact on future fire regimes in many global regions. Current research suggests a general increase in area burned and fire occurrence but there is a lot of global variability. Recent studies of future global fire weather under different climate change scenarios using several General Circulation Models are reviewed. A widespread increase in future fire weather severity was found over almost all the earth with increasing fire season length occurring in many regions, particularly at northern latitudes. In the boreal forest region, which represents about one-third of global forest cover, increased area burned over the last four decades has been linked to higher temperatures as a result of human-induced climate change. This trend in the boreal region is projected to continue as fire weather severity and fire intensity will sharply rise by up to 4-5 times current peak values by the end of the century. Many national fire management organizations already operate at a very high level of efficiency, and there is a very narrow margin between suppression success and failure. Under a warmer and drier future climate, fire management agencies will be challenged by fire weather conditions that could push current suppression capacity beyond a tipping point, resulting in a substantial increase in large fires.

https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr245/psw_gtr245.pdf

Proceedings of the fourth international symposium on fire economics, planning, and policy: climate change and wildfires

Introduction: The objective of this research is to understand the changes in fire use practices of  fire use in two indigenous communities located in Lagunas de Montebello National Park, Chiapas, Mexico, where current public policies implementation on fire use suppression have had severe social and ecological repercussions. The wildfire in 1998 has been considered as a breaking point to the changes and tensions that are happening in the region.Method: We applied 66 semi-structured and in-depth interviews to two rural communities, located inside (Tziscao) and outside (Antela). The topics were about local fire uses and the governmental fire policies incidence over rural communities to understand who they are, where are they and how was the birth of the “Sin fuego”.Results and discussion:  The narratives included different interpretation about practices of fire uses, mainly in agriculture activities, where fire uses were more severely criminalised. The fire suppression policy implementation, after 1998’s big wildfire in the Park, marked a before and after in the territory. Generally, these public policies are opposed to the traditional logic in the use of fire, and they have been generating a disappearance of fire use practices in these rural territories, where communities have historically used the fire for several purposes. Some practices that included the use of fire, such as slash and burn agriculture have entirely disappeared in Tziscao, a community where the fire was a central element of culture, livelihood, and a way of building the territory. At present, the inhabitants are afraid to use fire in their practices, due to repercussions for causing fires and the risk of declining tourism. In Antela rural community, which is located outside to the Park and with no economic dependence on tourism, maintains traditional fire practices on farming activities.Conclusion: If the tendency to suppress fire is maintained, not only will a process of cultural transformation intensify, but also of environmental degradation about to the construction of the territory. More significantly, a dramatic modification of the landscape could trigger more catastrophic wildfires. Thus, the long-term challenge is not to make inviable or exclude fire, is to include it in the maintenance and shaping of the landscape based on the experience and knowledge that peasant communities have, the investigation of available fire ecology, and sensibilise and integrate the government authorities for the formulation of fire management plans that integrate local practices.

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El nacimiento de los “Sin fuego”: caso Parque Nacional Lagunas de Montebello, Chiapas, México

This study reported the traditional knowledge about useful plants in Pinus hartwegii forests, an important ecosystem that marks the timberline in Mexico and provides several ecosystem services, as it is normally head of watersheds. The study was carried out in two higher mountain rural communities in central Mexico: Rancheria Las Palomas (RLP) in the State of Mexico and San Jose Pilancon (SJP) in the state of Veracruz. The informants’ consensus method was used, and semi-structured interviews to 10 % of the total population were applied, together with botanical tours, Use Value Index (UVI) data and plant richness. In total, 51 species were found useful in RLP and 46 species in SJP, distributed in nine use categories in RLP and eleven in SJP. The UVI coincided in the two communities where the pine-ocote ( P. hartwegii ) was the most important species (1.9 RLP and 1.2 SJP). In general terms, within the studied areas, it was possible to distinguish that traditional knowledge of useful plants is mainly kept in adult and female persons. The study is expected to be a basis for valuation and conservation of traditional knowledge and phytodiversity of this type of forests, by local communities and environmental authorities.

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Uso tradicional de la fitodiversidad de los bosques de Pinus hartwegii en dos comunidades mexicanas de alta montaña

Forest fires are a natural element in many terrestrial ecosystems, in Mexico one of the main causes of loss of vegetation coverage is related to them. Nevertheless, no research has been carried out in the Tamaulipan thornscrub communities regarding post-fire regenerative strategies of plant species, therefore, is important to generate knowledge about the ecological role of fire in them. The aim of this study is to characterize the arboreal and shrub vegetation of a Tamaulipan thornscrub community in the Northeast of Mexico after a fire. To determine the composition, diversity and structure of the floral community consisting of trees and shrubs, 6 square-shaped sampling sites of 1,600 m2 were established 3 years after the fire. Margalef (DMg), Shannon-Weiner (H’) and Pretzsch (A) indices were calculated to determine the richness, diversity and vertical stratification of species, respectively.23 species, 21 genera and 14 families of vascular plants were registered. The most species were Fabaceae (6) and Rhamnaceae (3) and Cordia boissieri was the specie with greater ecological weight (IVI = 20.3%). The indexes of richness and true diversity (DMg = 3.16; D = 16.44) showed high values, which suggests that the post-fire area has a good regeneration and a high species diversity. With these results we can conclude that the fire is an important agent of change in successional stages of Tamaulipan thornscrub with high values of regeneration after a surface fire.

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Tamaulipan thornscrub after fire: an analysis of the composition of species.

This paper reports on the research and operational results of efforts made by some rural communities, the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (UACH) and other organizations to achieve integrated fire management in central Mexico. The research includes the latest results obtained by UACH’s Ajusco Project on the subject, in both fire-maintained and fire-sensitive ecosystems. Operationally, the paper reports on the holding of workshops, meetings and prescribed burns oriented towards this type of fire management in Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Puebla and Tlaxcala, organized with producers by CONAFOR and UACH. It is a joint effort involving farmers, government organizations at the federal and state levels, and a teaching and research institution. It seeks to contribute to this management alternative, through the merger of the ecological use of fire, its judicious and low-impact use by rural communities, and the prevention and fighting of forest fires, promoting all kinds of positive impacts and reducing the negative ones. Introduction Despite its small area of almost 150,000 ha, Mexico City, also known as the Federal District, is a federal entity with the biggest human population in the country. The largest number of fires also occurs there. In fact, it is not uncommon to have more than 1,000 fires per year. However, most are small, as the National Forest Commission (a federal government agency) and the Natural Resources Commission (an agency of the Mexico City government) have the human resources, materials and specialized equipment to perform fire management tasks. Over 40 % of the causes are agricultural. Farmers burn open grasslands or in the forest to promote the emergence of new sprouts, called "pelillo" in Mexico, which they use to supplement the diet of their animals during the dry season. Escapes from the burning of crop residues, used to clear the ground, fertilize it with ashes and reduce potential pests, are also part of such agricultural causes. About 25 % of the causes include bonfires 1 Professor-Researcher, Forestry Department, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Chapingo, Edo. de Méx., C.P. 56230, MÉXICO. Tel. 5959521500 x 5468. Email: dantearturo@yahoo.com 2 Forest Engineer, Head of the Forest Fire Department in Mexico City, National Forest Commission. Progreso 5, Col del Carmen Coyoacán, Coyoacán, Distrito Federal, C.P. 04100, MÉXICO. Tel. 5555540612. Email: acruz@conafor.gob.mx Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Fire Economics, Planning, and Policy: Climate Change and Wildfires 339 and still-lit matches and cigarette butts tossed onto the ground by passers-by and fieldworkers (CONAFOR, 2012; CORENA, 2012). Rural areas in the southern part of Mexico City cover almost 89,000 ha, and include some 50,000 ha with forest vegetation. The latter includes both firemaintained and fire-sensitive and -influenced vegetation. The first group includes pine forests, oak forests, matorrales (shrublands) and zacatonales, while in the second group a few patches of cloud forest and sacred fir forest can be mentioned. The latter is considered moderately adapted to fire by recent research. The forests in the south of Mexico City, which are in wildland-urban interface areas, provide many environmental services to the city, such as control of dust clouds, water and carbon capture, recreation and leisure sites and ecotourism, among others. As is the case elsewhere in the country and in many parts of the world, a large number of fires in this area are linked to agricultural causes, which are based on poverty and the needs of rural people, but also on a lack of information. But they are also superimposed on extensive ecosystems requiring fire to stay healthy, such as those mentioned; moreover, the smoke produced from fires further contaminates what is already one of the most polluted cities in the world. It has also been estimated that climate change, globally and in Mexico, is expanding dry areas and thus resulting in increased fire hazard. This, coupled with a still far-off solution to poverty, lets us see near-future, medium-term and long-term scenarios of more forest fires, which must be managed from their social and ecological components, in addition to preventing and fighting fires that will remain an important part of management efforts. The above is the challenge facing fire management in Mexico City and the country as a whole, which will only be properly met when fire is used for ecological, management and conservation purposes in ecosystems that need it, and when people who use fire in the traditional way minimize escapes, follow the existing regulations and stop conducting uncontrolled burns, so that the positive effects of fire are maximized and the negative ones (such as air pollution and erosion) minimized. All this should be promoted and validated by research carried out by universities and research centers, which have also taken a very active role in Mexico. This is called integrated fire management. In the year 2000, the University of Chapingo initiated the Ajusco Project, which is focused on fire ecology, integrated fire management and restoration of burned areas. The project’s goals, in addition to those set forth in the previous paragraph, are to promote fire research, increase the number of postgraduate students delving into the subject, train more people in the area of forest fires, provide feedback to courses with the information generated and participate in national and international GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PSW-GTR-245 340 workshops and conferences, such as this one, to disseminate the results. The aim of this paper is to give a summary overview of what has been achieved so far by the project and its impact. Work regions and partnerships Although the project team started its research in the cold-temperate area of central Mexico, it is now also at work in tropical and semi-arid areas. In total the project team has worked or is working in Mexico City and 11 states of the country: State of Mexico, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Puebla, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Sonora and Coahuila. In various forms, it has worked with international institutions and organizations such as: the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, the University of Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service, the Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana, Natural Resources Canada, the Nature Conservancy, the University of Lleida, Spain and the University of Jaén, Spain. Nationally, partnerships have been formed with CONAFOR, CONAFOR-Mexico City, CORENA, CONAFOR-Puebla, Colegio de Postgraduados, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Universidad Autonoma de Hidalgo, and CONANP. Some of the contributions made by the project are cited below. The references correspond to members of the work team. Including professors’ work, theses, articles derived from both and published in international or national journals, books, book chapters and presentations at events, from regional to international, there have been more than 60 publications. Some more are in progress and several of those already published are mentioned below. Contributions to the ecological component of IFM

https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr245/psw_gtr245_338.pdf

Advances in integrated fire management in central Mexico

Pinus hartwegii forests are favored when they have the right fire regimes, but when this does not happen, the use of prescribed burnings is an option to correct them, which makes the study of fire ecology a relevant matter in this context. In the particular case of Distrito Federal, forests provide environmental services to the people who live at the southern part. Therefore, over a hillside of Ajusco volcano, three plots with prescribed burnings of low intensity (flame length <1 m, propagation speed 3 m min-1), and three plots without burning as control were established at a completely random experimental design (3.6 ha per plot in average). A year later, data from the undergrowth were taken to determine species richness, Shannon-Wiener and Simpson diversity indexes as well as the importance values. The multivariate and univariate analyses of variance revealed an increment in the richness and diversity of species in the burned plots. Muhlenbergia quadridentata increased its density and dominance below greater radiation, but Penstemon gentianoides reduced the latter when radiation was higher, which might be related to a greater moisture in partially shadowed sites. Diversity becomes more important when competition with grasses gets lower, as they dominate the not-burned locations.

DIVERSIDAD DEL SOTOBOSQUE Y RADIACIÓN SOLAR EN UN BOSQUE DE Pinus hartwegii Lindl. CON QUEMA PRESCRITA UNDERGROWTH DIVERSITY AND SOLAR RADIATION IN A Pinus hartwegii Lindl. FOREST WITH PRESCRIBED BURNING

Gloria Elena

Papers

DIVERSIDAD DEL SOTOBOSQUE Y RADIACIÓN SOLAR EN UN BOSQUE DE Pinus hartwegii Lindl. CON QUEMA PRESCRITA UNDERGROWTH DIVERSITY AND SOLAR RADIATION IN A Pinus hartwegii Lindl. FOREST WITH PRESCRIBED BURNING