Forest Fire Rehabilitation

Forest fire is one of the key drivers of forest degradation. Forest fire destroys more trees than all other natural calamities: parasite attacks, insects, frost, etc. Additionally, forest fires are also a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; during biomass burning large amounts of carbon dioxide, black carbon, and trace gases, including harmful GHGs such as nitrogen oxides and methane are released into the atmosphere which in turns adversely affect air quality and climate on regional and global scales.

Forest fires have adverse ecological and economic effects and are a major concern in many countries, especially regarding management and prevention (ICIMOD, 2019). National and international organizations are fighting these issues by developing different mechanisms like the Kyoto Protocol, Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Burn area mapping is essential to carry out a comprehensive assessment of damage occurring in forests due to major fire events as well as plays an important role in the planning of mitigation measures and vegetation regrowth activities. Moreover, rapid and accurate mapping using satellite images of fire burn severity is an essential initiative to support fire management activities such as strategic planning, mitigation measures, and monitoring restoration of vegetation. These are some of the reasons indicating the importance of forest fire rehabilitation.

What do we do?

Firstly we observe forest fires using Sentinel-2 satellite images and identify burned (burnt) areas and severity levels using GIS tools. Once we identify the fire-affected area we classify those areas according to districts and prepare a map of it. After making a map we try to contact respective District Forest Offices (DFO) for facilitation. With the coordination of District Forest Offices (DFOs), and Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) we survey those areas and start rehabilitation activities based on Burn Severity Level. For that, we conduct several activities which are:

Research and Analysis related to forest fires,
Seed sowing / Afforestation,
Preparation, Distribution, and Protection of Seedlings and Saplings,
Establishing Forest Lines and controlled burning,
Train the community on how to tackle forest fires at an early stage,
Forest Inventory and Management Activities,
Help in the reintroduction of wildlife affected by forest fires,
Conduct awareness programs to reduce human-wildlife conflicts.

Goal

To reduce carbon footprint by reducing forest fires and rehabilitating the burnt area of Nepal.

How are we going to achieve this?

As our mission is to reduce carbon emissions by restoring the vegetation that is destroyed by fire which not only increases carbon stock, flourishes biodiversity, and enhances greenery but also empowers the locals. So, it requires proper planning and resources which is the reason we divided the whole process into 4 various phases which are:

Phase I

Preparation of forest fire Map of Chure Region and ground-truthing of obtained result. Chure Area, also known as the newer Himalayas is the most fragile landscape of Nepal. This region consists of 37 districts of Nepal.

Methodology

For the completion of this phase, the following methodology will be adopted.

I. Classification of the image.

II. Cloud / NDWI Correction (Pre-Processing).

III. Derivation of NBR, dNBR, RBR.

IV. Burn Severity Classification.

V. Burn Area Mapping, Further Analysis, and Visual Interpretation.

Phase II

Rehabilitation of burnt areas by planting high-value species with coordination and cooperation of Government, NGOs, and Locals. Inducing Progressive Succession in the case of forest land whereas retrogressive succession in the case of grassland.

Phase III

Measurement of increment in carbon stock using IPCC guidelines and converting it into monetary value. Publication of reports and presenting them over different national and international forums.

Phase IV

Implementation of processes all over the country.

Although the whole work is divided into 4 phases, it can occur simultaneously as well due to the nature of the work.

What do we use for preparation of Map and analysis?

We use Google Earth Engine (JavaScript), Satellite Images and Q-GIS for map preparation whereas MS Office and SPSS are used for analysis process.

Who are the Stakeholders?

Organizations,
Civil Society, Locals (especially Disadvantaged and Marginalized Groups),
Locals,
CFUGs,
NGOs.

What have we accomplished so far?

Currently, we are at the end of the first phase i.e. preparation of a forest fire map of Chure Region comprising more than 1.7 million hectares of land. Now, we are preparing for ground truthing as well as contacting DFOs and Sub Division Forest Offices of relative districts. In addition to that, we have carried out activities of disseminating information regarding forest fire, nursery training, practical demonstration of forest management, and inventory to different community people.

References

Babu, K. S., & Vanama, V. S. K. (2020). Burn area mapping in Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform: 2019 forest fires in eastern Australia. In 2020 International Conference on Smart Innovations in Design, Environment, Management, Planning and Computing (ICSIDEMPC) (pp. 109-112).
ICIMOD. (2019). Forest fire detection and monitoring system in Nepal. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from https://lib.icimod.org/record/27077
Matin M, Chitale V, Murthy SR, Uddin M, Bajracharya K, Pradhan, Sudip B.(2017). Understanding forest fire patterns and risk in Nepal using remote sensing, geographic information system and historical fire data. Int J Wildland Fire. 26(4):276.
Key, C.H. and Benson, N.C.(1999). Measuring and remote sensing of burn severity. In Proceedings joint fire science conference and workshop (Vol. 2, p. 284). University of Idaho and International Association of Wildland Fire Moscow, ID.