Editing IPCC:AR6/WGIII/Chapter-7 (section)

==== 7.4.2.4 Fire Management (Forest and Grassland/Savanna Fires) ====

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'''Activities, co-benefits, risks and implementation opportunities and barriers.''' Fire management objectives include safeguarding life, property, and resources through the prevention, detection, control, restriction, and management of fire for diverse purposes in natural ecosystems (SRCCL, Chapter 6). Controlled burning is an effective economic method of reducing fire danger and stimulating natural regeneration. Co-benefits of fire management include reduced air pollution compared to much larger, uncontrolled fires, prevention of soil erosion and land degradation, biodiversity conservation in rangelands, and improvement of forage quality ( [[#Hurteau--2011|Hurteau and Brooks 2011]] ; [[#Falk--2017|Falk 2017]] ; [[#Hurteau--2019|Hurteau et al. 2019]] ). Fire management is still challenging because it is not only fire suppression at times of fire, but especially proper natural resource management in between fire events. Furthermore, it is challenging because of legal and policy issues, equity and rights concerns, governance, capacity, and research needs ( [[#Wiedinmyer--2010|Wiedinmyer and Hurteau 2010]] ; [[#Goldammer--2016|Goldammer 2016]] ; [[#Russell-Smith--2017|Russell-Smith et al. 2017]] ). It will increasingly be needed under future enhanced climate change.

'''Conclusions from AR5 and IPCC Special Reports (SR1.5, SROCC and SRCCL); mitigation potential, costs, and pathways.''' In the SRCCL, fire management is among the nine options that can deliver medium-to-large benefits across multiple land challenges (climate change mitigation, adaptation, desertification, land degradation, and food security) ( ''high confidence'' ). Total emissions from fires have been on the order of 8.1 GtCO 2 -eq yr –1 in terms of gross biomass loss for the period 1997–2016 (SRCCL, Chapter 2, and Cross-Chapter Box 3 in Chapter 2). Reduction in fire CO 2 emissions was calculated to enhance land carbon sink by 0.48 GtCO 2 -eq yr –1 for the 1960–2009 period ( [[#Arora--2018|Arora and Melton 2018]] ) (SRCCL, Table 6.16).

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===== Developments since AR5 and IPCC Special Reports (SR1.5, SROCC and SRCCL) =====

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'''Savannas.''' Savannas constitute one of the most fire-prone vegetation types on Earth and are a significant source of GHG emissions. Savanna fires contributed 62% (4.92 PgCO 2 -eq yr –1) ) of gross global mean fire emissions between 1997 and 2016. Regrowth from vegetation postfire sequesters the CO 2 released into the atmosphere, but not the CH 4 and N 2 O emissions which contributed an approximate net of 2.1 PgCO 2 -eq yr −1 ( [[#Lipsett-Moore--2018|Lipsett-Moore et al. 2018]] ). Therefore, implementing prescribed burning with low intensity fires, principally in the early dry season, to effectively manage the risk of wildfires occurring in the late dry season is associated with reducing emissions ( [[#Whitehead--2014|Whitehead et al. 2014]] ). Considering this fire management practice, estimates of global opportunities for emissions reductions were estimated at 69.1 MtCO 2 -eq yr −1 in Africa (29 countries, with 20 least developed African countries accounting for 74% of the mitigation potential), 13.3 MtCO 2 -eq yr −1 in South America (six countries), and 6.9 MtCO 2 -eq yr –1 in Australia and Papua New Guinea ( [[#Lipsett-Moore--2018|Lipsett-Moore et al. 2018]] ). In Australia, savanna burning emissions abatement methodologies have been available since 2012, and abatement has exceeded 9.3 MtCO 2 -eq mainly through the management of low intensity early dry season fire. Until September 2021, 78 projects were registered (Australian Government, Clean Energy Regulator, 2021).

'''Forests.''' Fire is also a prevalent forest disturbance ( [[#Falk--2011|Falk et al. 2011]] ; [[#Scott--2014|Scott et al. 2014]] ; [[#Andela--2019|Andela et al. 2019]] ). About 98 Mha of forest were affected by fire in 2015, affecting about 4% of the tropical (dry) forests, 2% of the subtropical forests, and 1% of temperate and boreal forests ( [[#FAO--2020a|FAO 2020a]] ). Between 2001–2018, remote sensing data showed that tree-covered areas correspond to about 29% of the total area burned by wildfires, most in Africa. Prescribed fires are also applied routinely in forests worldwide for fuel reduction and ecological reasons ( [[#Kalies--2016|Kalies and Yocom Kent 2016]] ). Fire resilience is increasingly managed in Southwestern USA forest landscapes, which have experienced droughts and widespread, high-severity wildfires ( [[#Keeley--2019|Keeley et al. 2019]] ). In these forests, fire exclusion management, coupled with a warming climate, has led to increasingly severe wildfires ( [[#Hurteau--2014|Hurteau et al. 2014]] ). However, the impacts of prescribed fires in forests in reducing carbon emissions are still inconclusive. Some positive impacts of prescribed fires are associated with other fuel reduction techniques ( [[#Loudermilk--2017|Loudermilk et al. 2017]] ; [[#Flanagan--2019|Flanagan et al. 2019]] ; [[#Stephens--2020|Stephens et al. 2020]] ), leading to maintaining carbon stocks and reducing carbon emissions in the future where extreme fire weather events are more frequent ( [[#Krofcheck--2018|Krofcheck et al. 2018]] , 2019; [[#Hurteau--2019|Hurteau et al. 2019]] ; [[#Bowman--2020a|Bowman et al. 2020a]] ,b; [[#Goodwin--2020|Goodwin et al. 2020]] ). Land management approaches will certainly need to consider the new climatic conditions (e.g., the proportion of days in fire seasons with the potential for unmanageable fires more than doubling in some regions in northern and eastern boreal forest) ( [[#Wotton--2017|Wotton et al. 2017]] ).

'''Critical assessment and conclusion.''' There is ''low confidence'' that the global technical mitigation potential for grassland and savanna fire management by 2050 is 0.1 (0.09–0.1) GtCO 2 yr –1 , and the economic mitigation potential (&lt;USD100 tCO 2 –1 ) is 0.05 (0.03–0.07) GtCO 2 yr –1 . Savanna fires produce significant emissions globally, but prescribed fires in the early dry season could mitigate emissions in different regions, particularly Africa. Evidence is less clear for fire management of forests, with the contribution of GHG mitigation depending on many factors that affect the carbon balance (e.g., [[#Simmonds--2021|Simmonds et al. 2021]] ). Although prescribed burning is promoted to reduce uncontrolled wildfires in forests, the benefits for the management of carbon stocks are unclear, with different studies reporting varying results especially concerning its long-term effectiveness ( [[#Wotton--2017|Wotton et al. 2017]] ; [[#Bowman--2020b|Bowman et al. 2020b]] ). Under increasing climate change however, an increased attention on fire management will be necessary.

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