Forest Fire and Haze Management: Lessons Learned from the Multi-stakeholder Collaborative Management in Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

Forest fires and haze problems could be decreased owing to collaborative management among local relevant stakeholders. This paper depicts the lessons learned of forest fire management in dry dipterocarp forests having forest fires every year. The significant stakeholders compose of villagers, officers of forest fire control stations, Chom Thong District, local governments and researchers. They had co-operated forest fire reduction experiments during 2012-2015 in Chom Thong District. After evaluating the causes of forest fire and the obstructions of forest fire control in the past, the stakeholders had changed their former forest fire control methods to prescribed burning to reduce fuel in dry dipterocarp forests. This method has been widely accepted as it is suitable for topography, forest types, climate, and villager socio-economic circumstances. The prescribed burning was capable to reduce forest fires and haze comparing with the past. The stakeholders also co-experimented and created their own systematic forest fire management to the local circumstances. The success factor comes from villagers’ ability to choose appropriate forest fire management able to reduce time, labors and cost of forest fire control. Additionally, the prescribed burning in this area had less effect to climate quality while the fire intensity during the burning was still low and acceptable to have less damage to saplings and sprouts. During the four years of co-experiments, prescribed burning has been more accepted and widely applied in dry dipterocarp forests of Chiang Mai Province.