Key to controlling wildfires lies with communities
While attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, we must also be alert to another fast-spreading hazard claiming lives — wildfires.
Several people died this year fighting fires in northern Thailand. Now, hundreds of fires are burning there, in Laos and Myanmar. We expect more fires soon in Indonesia, where the fire season is just beginning. Without controls, forest fires in Southeast Asia will continue to threaten people’s health and livelihoods while destroying biodiversity and fuelling climate change.
Technology-centred approaches for dealing with wildfire are failing. But research shows we have alternatives that work. And, crucially, in a time of climate change, a deadly pandemic and rising inequality in our region, these alternatives empower and support marginalised people while strengthening local forest management.
DAVID GANZ
