Costs and effectiveness of public and private fire management programs in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado

There is a noted lack of information on the effectiveness of investments in forest fire management in Brazil. Here, we quantify the budget expenditures of one private and one public fire-management program. We then compare burned areas within conservation units (CUs) and private rural properties (PPs) with and without investments in fire management in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes. Investments in fire management in CUs total US$ 0.51 ha-1 yr- 1 in the Amazon and US$ 5.32 ha-1 yr- 1 in the Cerrado. Roughly, 94% of the public investment in fire management in CUs is only assigned to suppression activities, although seven CUs in Cerrado have undertaken innovative Integrated Fire Management (IFM) that includes prevention practices. Cerrado CUs with brigades for fire suppression have reduced burned area by 12%, on average, compared with CUs without brigades. Further, CUs that also included prevention practices as part of IFM reduced burned areas by an additional 6% from CUs with only fire suppression practices. Investments in both fire prevention and suppression on private lands amounted to US$ 15.89 ha-1 yr- 1. We identify a reduction of 50%, on average, in burned areas after PPs joined the fire mitigation program of Alian?a da Terra. In face of increasingly disruptive wildfires alongside finite financial resources, we call for the need of a mix of cost-effective private and public fire management programs with strong emphasis on prevention practices.

Automated summary

This study highlights the lack of information on the effectiveness of investments in forest fire management in Brazil, focusing on private and public programs in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. The findings show that public investments mainly focus on fire suppression, while private lands have higher investments in fire prevention and suppression which lead to significant reduction in burned areas. Joining fire mitigation programs can help reduce burned areas significantly on private lands, emphasizing the importance of a mix of cost-effective private and public fire management programs with strong emphasis on prevention practices in the face of limited financial resources and increasing disruptive wildfires.