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Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

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Project • CBA2018-01MY-Wanthongchai

Integrated Highland Wildfire, Smoke and Haze Management in the Upper Indochina Region

Fire has long been used in SEAsia. Climate change and economic pressures, however, has changed the way of local life including fire use culture. Many forests are too frequently burned for non-timber forest products (NTFPs) harvesting. Highland area is shifted from forest cover (mostly deciduous forest) to shifting cultivation, in which slash and burn is applied. These situations have led to frequent unplanned fires and hence smoke and haze pollution. A zero-burn policy has been launched to tackle this problem. However, this policy may not be appropriate since people still need fire for agriculture. Moreover, deciduous forest is a fire-dependent ecosystem. Too frequent burning from local people or too much fire prevention from government policy will therefore impact this ecosystem. This project will adopt Integrated Fire Management with the participatory process to develop the Community Based Fire Management (CBFiM) plan. To achieve this target, fuel and fire behavior, fire impact, fire risk map derived from fire meteorology and air pollutant emissions, climatology, modeling and climate change scenarios will be evaluated and presented. Thereafter, communities will consider this above information for developing CBFiM plan in the workshops. During the research processes, partners from Myanmar and Lao will have a chance to join, learn and discuss. This process and knowledge gained from current study will be use to educate our networks including Myanmar, Lao, and Thailand.