- Title:
-
Meeting Challenges: Implementing a code of practice for fire management in Victoria, Australia
- Date:
- July 2007
- Organisations
- Global Fire Monitoring Center
- Authors:
- Rachaele May, Aimee Haywood
- Location:
- Australia, Australia
Overview
In 1995 a Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land was developed for the State of Victoria, in south eastern Australia. As one of the most fire-prone regions in the world, Victorian ecosystems have adapted to fire over millions of years, with many species relying on specific fire regimes to flourish. The challenge for Victorian fire managers has been to balance the safety of humans living in close proximity to parks and forests with the needs of flora and fauna. The 1995 Code of Practice was one of the first strategies to set an overall framework for integrated management of wildfire and fire-related activities on Victorian parks and forests. It was designed to ensure that the response to wildfire and use of prescribed burning were in accordance with sound environmental guidelines, and assisted the achievement of other fire management objectives.
In 2002-2003 over one million hectares of parks and forests were burnt in one of the largest wildfires in the last 50 years experienced in Victoria. This followed six years of drought and unfavourable weather conditions for prescribed burning. Significant public scrutiny and key learnings from these events provided a solid basis to begin the scheduled 10-year review of the 1995 Code of Practice. Over an 18-month period, a thorough review of the Code of Practice was undertaken. Essential to the revision of the Code of Practice was collaboration with the Victorian community, stakeholders and wildfire specialists. The recently approved 2006 Code of Practice is now being implemented across the seven million hectares of parks and forests in Victoria.
The 2006 Code of Practice establishes a framework for the public administration of fire management in wildfire-prone areas, with community engagement providing the foundation for successful wildfire prevention, suppression and recovery. It links wildfire management with the active use of fire for ecological purposes and contributes to global wildfire management strategies.
The 2006-2007 season again saw more than one million hectares burnt, including approximately 10 percent of the areas previously burnt by the 2002-2003 wildfire. A challenge for fire managers in south-eastern Australia is to incorporate climate change into the landscape approach for fire planning and recognise the associated changes in biodiversity. Future reviews of the Code of Practice may need to be brought forward to meet this.
