ZEF Colloquium on Amazonian Wildfires in Focus: Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities and Management Possibilities in the context of Increasing Risk

October 28, 2021 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h

ZEF Colloquium

Topic: Amazonian Wildfires in Focus: Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities and Management Possibilities in the context of Increasing Risk

Speakers: Angela May Steward has PhD in Sustainable Development from the City University of New York, NY/University of Brasilia, Brazil. She is currently a professor at the Amazonian Institute for Agrarian Studies (Ineaf) at the Federal University of Pará, Brazil. 

Yara de Paula has an undergraduate degree in Biology and a master’s degree in Ecology from the Federal University of Acre, Brazil. She is currently a researcher affiliated with the MAP-Fire project-/TREES Laboratory – National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil.

Abstract

Despite increasing attention and investments in control and prevention measures of mega-fires in Amazonia, they are predicted to increase in the context of climate change and anthropogenic transformations. Research on wildfire impacts has largely focused on regional economic losses, with less attention given to the differential effects of wildfires on social actors. Studies on how socioeconomic vulnerability intersects with fire risk to impact the most marginalized social groups in Amazonia is particularly lacking, and yet are essential to promoting effective fire management policies. To advance these discussions, we present recent research from Amazonia that mobilize these intersecting themes. We first report on the objectives and preliminary results of the MAP-FIRE project (Multi-Actor Adaptation Plan to cope with Forests under Increasing Risk of Extensive Fires/INPE, Brazil) undertaken in the states of Madre de Dios (Peru), Acre (Brazil) and Pando (Bolivia), or the MAP region. We later discuss community-level ethnographic research from Eastern and Central Amazonia and highlight the impacts of fires on distinct social groups. Research also compares how people from within the same community experience fire and their effects differently. Studies emphasize, in particular, how fire and other climate-related changes impact rural work patterns, affecting men and women distinctly, and thus illuminate the potential of ethnographic and intersectional approaches to identify the most vulnerable actors in the context of increasing fire risk in Amazonia.

Registration: https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIrdu6grDsrE90nkeMmhhUSQbmT0vaCriKr

Contact: Dennis Aviles (davilesi(at)uni-bonn.de)