According to a recent study, between 2003 and 2012, approximately 67 million hectares (1.7%) of forest land is burned annually, mostly in tropical South America and Africa. The immediate and long-term impacts of wildfires can be devastating to communities, economies and forest ecosystems. The increase in forest wildfires around the world also threatens the long-term permanence of carbon stocks in all types of forests, as well as forest regeneration and reforestation projects. Many countries in Africa are particularly vulnerable to this threat, with Sudan being one of them. How the country is rethinking its fire management and monitoring in the framework of its REDD+ activities, and how can innovations in national forest monitoring facilitate the process?

The impact of forest fires

In the context of REDD+, forest fires can play a crucial role at the country level, as in one way or another they can affect (mostly negatively) all five of REDD+ activities - reducing emissions from deforestation, reducing emissions from forested degradation, sustainable management of forests, conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Forest wildfires not only compromise carbon permanence in the countries, but can also negatively impact human health, livelihoods and biodiversity with all three being REDD+ co-benefits. In Sudan, UN-REDD Programme Partner Country since 2010, initiatives to reduce forest fires are an important part of REDD+ activities, as they become a valid forest conservation activity as well as a central environmental safeguard that has a potential to cut across all three phases of REDD+ activities (readiness, implementation and results assessment). However, incorporating effective fire management into REDD+ activities often presents a challenge for some countries, as is the case in Sudan.

Wildfires in Sudan

Although more than one million hectares of forest are burned annually in Sudan (mostly caused by anthropogenic factors), until recently the country had no comprehensive fire management activities plan and only a limited budget to build low-quality firebreaks with limited effect. Other components of integrated fire management were often neglected, including analysis of fires, wildfire risk reduction activities such as awareness raising, early fire detection systems, a strong communication system, transportation, firefighting activities and participation of local communities. How can the situation be improved? Given the scarce financial and technical resources of the Sudan, a combination of Remote Sensing and groundtruthing was the most promising and sustainable approach.

Remote Sensing for improved fire management and prevention

Remote Sensing (RS) technologies have been already extensively used by Sudan in various sectors including Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU). Today RS is a vital tool for burned area mapping as it is able to generate historical background and production of fire frequency maps. These critical steps allow the country to review and analyse fire sources, agencies and motivations - all crucial for identifying risk reduction activities. In addition, RS supports the assessment of the available fuel load for fire as well as the production of the vulnerability map. The collected information provides an important part of the basis for integrated fire management activities involving various government agencies and different administrative levels including local communities.

Continue reading at:  https://www.unredd.net/announcements-and-news/2950-managing-wildfires-in-sudan-using-satellite-remote-sensing-data.html

Click for more