Fire management for successful watershed rehabilitation in the Philippines: implications for sustainable management in Mt. Makiling [Philippines]
2010
Florece, L.M., Philippines Univ. Los Baños, College, Laguna (Philippines). School of Environmental Science and Management
A review of fire ecology researches in the Philippines and an evaluation of controlled burning or prescribed fire as site maintenance and tending tool for reforestation of fire-dominated ecosystems in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija and Itogon, Benguet [Philippines]. The review revealed that fire researches in the country were mostly focused on the biophysical effects of fire on grass-dominated ecosystem particularly on biomass productivity, population of soil micro-organisms, fungi, soil temperature and moisture, soil chemical properties, soil erosion, rate and surface run-off, fire intensity quantification, fire behavior characterization and impacts on survival rate of plantations and reprouting ability of trees. The evaluation of prescribed fire as site maintenance and tending tool was promising considering t he high survival rate of some fire-resistant and fire-sensitive trees in both sites, though soil erosion rates were high in the burned than in the unburned plots. The result of the review and evaluation of prescribed fire in an experiment became an input to the formulation of a proposed integrated fire management system for the country and a prescribed fire protocol for fire-adapted ecosystems. In this initiative, the result of the monitoring of fuel loading and fuel moisture content determination implies that even climate change, Mt. Makiling fuel will burn, but with an intensity that is not as strong as most fire intensities in grasslands. Setting up of a fire management team is hereby proposed as a precautionary measure. The opportunity to maximize the use of prescribed fire in fire-prone ecosystems is promising. Because fire is part of their ecological processes, using controlled burning is hereby recommended for as long as the needed financial, logistical and policy support are needed.
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