Invitation to the PBW group

Invitation to the “Prescribed Burning Watch” group

Dear All,

We launched the international public campaign “Stop the Harmful Forms of Prescribed Burning!”. The campaign was started in the framework of the Prescribed Burning Watch (PBW) community – the growing international community of independent observers of negative consequences of the prescribed burning practice.

Here we present the first position of the campaign, which describes the entity of prescribed burning problem in the world, the catastrophic negative consequences of the harmful forms of prescribed burning (which can be defiantly assumed basing on the character of their implementation), the objectives and tasks of the campaign.

The position also contains the invitation to the “Prescribed Burning Watch” (PBW) facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/333909630609223 which was created for the development of the campaign and PBW community.

Everybody welcome to join the PBW group: ask questions, say opinions, ideas, criticism, give new information and participate in the work of the “Stop the Harmful Forms of Prescribed Burning!” public campaign and Prescribed Burning Watch community.

The target audience of the first position of the “Stop the Harmful Forms of Prescribed Burning!” public campaign is the following:

·         wildland firefighters of the countries where the prescribed burning practice  is  intensively used;

·         prescribed burning practitioners, as well as scientists, propagandist, promoters, sponsors of this practice;

·         the authority of the countries where the prescribed burning practice  is  intensively used and can be used;

·         forestry companies;

·         governmental organizations worked with wildfires and nature conservation;

·         environmentalists and environmental organizations, especially those ones who work with protected natural lands,  including natural reserves, national parks, and wilderness areas, who fighting against  biodiversity reduction and climate change;

·         journalists who cover the listed topics.

The main purposes of PBW facebook group are the following:

1.Identification, formulation and discussion problems caused by the negative consequences of the harmful forms of prescribed burning (and another artificial burning of the same entity) on wild natural ecosystems, biological diversity, climate, soils, water, frequency and intensity of wildfires, human health and economy.  These problems are listed in the position of the “Stop the Harmful Forms of Prescribed Burning!” public campaign (pages 5-7, 13). 

2. Development of understanding what forms of artificial burning can be used in the future; what forms of artificial burning are drastically harmful and have to be stopped everywhere. That is, to select from the entire spectrum of prescribed burns their positive forms, this can be father used and developed and the negative forms which have to be terminated.

3. Gathering of information about the negative consequence of prescribed burning implementation (listed in this text and all others): scientific publications, materials in press and Internet resources.

4. Gathering information about the positive and acceptable (compromise) types of prescribed burns.  

5. Gathering of information about problems recognized inside the community of practitioners of prescribed burning and associated science. That is, what problems do the scientific and technical experts of prescribed burning see themselves?

6. Gathering of information about intentional programs of distribution the prescribed burning practice among the world, including those ones which use the PR (Public Relations) and GR (Government Relations) techniques of influence on people in order to widely promote this practice and avoid scientific evidence of its usefulness and safety.

7. Detection and discussion the complicated complex issues related to prescribed burning practice, like the following:

a.       The burning of dry grass and crop residues for agricultural purposes. Is it possible to avoid the burning in agriculture and what methods can replace the burning?

b.      The burning in herbaceous biomes (steppe, savannah). The issue is very controversial in Russia and other countries.

c.       The fate of probably man-made landscapes formed in ancient times by dint of the practice of burning of ancient native people (American Indians, aborigines of Australia, probably others). Should those landscapes be conserved and how this task should be solved? Should people stop artificial burning there and give nature a chance to evolve and recover naturally?. With regard to herbal biomes (steppe, savannah), this issue should be considered together with the problem of changes in the natural composition of animal species under human influence, which may be the main cause of changes in these biomes. That is, the way to preserve these biomes from degradation may be to restore the species composition and abundance of the native animals, not the burning.

8. Gathering of summary information of prescribed burns geography, scale, frequency and consequences of any country (georeferenced databases of prescribed burns, statistics of starting wildfires from prescribed burns, etc.).

9. Gathering of information about countries where all forms of prescribed burning are prohibited by law. 10. Gathering of information about organizations, communities, and individuals who oppose prescribed burning (to find companions).

11. Publication of news of the “Stop the Harmful Forms of Prescribed Burning!” campaign and similar activities in the world.

The material published in the group can be later used in other web resources of the campaign.

It is not encouraged in this group: to spread the regular news about prescribed burning practice (for example, who and where did the prescribed burning, news about training courses of prescribed burning, etc.). You can support this practice, work in it, but this group is not a platform for its propaganda and news coverage.

First of all, it is a working platform for searching solutions of the serious problems which this practice has already caused in the world (the main of which is significant and possibly irreparable damage of natural ecosystems and biodiversity on vast territories); developing a new attitude towards this practice (see all objectives and tasks of the campaign on pages 12-16).

The posted material should meet the tasks of the group. It should be associated with the identification, formulation, and discussion of the problems of the prescribed burnings practice. Please checks whether the news or other material you are posting here have this context.