- Title:
-
Prescribed Burning in Temperate Peri-urban Australia: How and why is the decision to burn made?
- Date:
- September 2008
- Organisations
- AFAC 2008 Conference
- Authors:
- N.W. Richards
- Location:
- Australia, SA, Australia
Overview
The International Bushfire Research Conference 2008 - incorporating The 15th annual AFAC Conference, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
There is much debate as to the effects of human induced fire regimes, applied to reduce the severity of bushfires on ecologies, which have evolved in the face of different fire regimes. Nowhere is this debate more intense than in the fire prone temperate peri-urban regions where undeveloped and rural lands meet urban development. It is in this setting that research was undertaken to answer the following questions:
- How and why are prescribed burning decisions made in peri-urban environments?
- What values, ideas and attitudes influence these decisions?
- How can decision making be improved?
Two regions in Australia were studied: The Mount Lofty Ranges near Adelaide in the state of South Australia, and the Macedon Ranges near Melbourne in the state of Victoria. Prescribed burning decisions in these regions are made within a context where societal goals associated with the reduction of bushfire risk to human life and assets, may conflict with those associated with biodiversity and conservation. This paper documents the changing values, attitudes and ideas that have informed prescribed burning decisions in the case regions, in the process making clear the changing values, attitudes and ideas that have informed prescribed burning decision's in the case regions, in the process making clear the influences on contemporary decisions. Drawing on the findings of this research, and the policy literature, this paper suggests reforms to improve the governance of prescribed burning so that decisions come closer to meeting the regulatory ideal of legitimacy.
