Burning perceptions that integrate wellbeing and ecosystem services to inform fire governance in the Peruvian Andes

Abstract

Fire is an essential tool enabling tropical subsistence agriculture, but can escape beyond its intended borders when not adequately controlled. Indeed this risk may be increasing under changing ecological and climatic shifts with implications for what constitutes adequate fire management. Understanding the perceptions of key actors about the role of fire and effective management is a crucial step in fire governance because it exposes views and can facilitate transparent decision-making and conflict management. Drawing on frameworks of wellbeing and ecosystem services, we conducted Q methodology with 56 fire users and managers, including subsistence-based Quechua farmers, firefighters, researchers, nonprofit staff, and government agents. Factor analysis revealed three distinct viewpoints on the role of fire, ranging from emphasizing the negative impacts of escaped fires on ecosystem services (e.g., on biodiversity and climate change impacts) to acknowledging benefits of intentional fires for rural wellbeing (e.g., that agricultural burns open new farmland or fire as the most accessible way to work the farm). We also found three viewpoints regarding fire management deemed effective: top-down fire suppression, community-based fire suppression, and community-based fire management. Integrating these diverse perspectives, actionable insights for decision making should include: legal recognition of traditional controlled burns, training programs that support volunteer community fire brigades, and integrated fire management solutions at multiple scales (community, district, regional, and national). Our analysis, grounded in the Peruvian Andes, suggests pathways for effective fire governance that can reconcile the different needs, uses, and types of fire.