Ecological Indicators 104 (2019) 137–144

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Ecological Indicators
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Forest fire legislation: Reactive or proactive? T

a,⁎ b
Paulo Reis Mourao , Vítor Domingues Martinho
a
Dept Economics & NIPE, University of Minho, 4700 Braga, Portugal
b
Agricultural School, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, 3500 Viseu, Portugal

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The literature about forest fire legislation is extensive, highlighting several perspectives, different methodologies
Forest fire legislation of analysis and considering diverse parts of the world as the basis of study. In these frameworks the discussions
Literature survey about the legal and policy instruments are not always consensual, what calls for more contributions in these
Reactivity fields. This study surveys the literature available, using the Web of Science platform and focusing on the subject
of forest fire legislation. About sixty documents were analyzed covering the twenty-years period from 1997 to
2017. The objective is to contribute to the debate about this contested topic, specifically in terms of whether
forest fire legislation is reactive to catastrophic occurrences or proactive, if it is sufficient for policies’ designing,
if it is complementary and whether some instruments are in conflict. The literature review shows that several
authors argue that forest fire legislation is reactive to large occurrences, where government focuses primarily on
the extent of the burnt area rather than the forestry development. Additionally, forest fire legislation is inter-
related with other aspects, including legislative instruments’ effectiveness or forest management and planning.
Finally, the conflicts or complementarity among the legal documents are addressed. The findings presented here
could be interesting insights for the several stakeholders related with the forest fire legislation, namely for the
policymakers.

1. Introduction
Legislation is an important instrument for any management or
strategic plan inside any sector, namely due to its normative imposition
and because it may function as guidelines for different stakeholders.
With respect to forest fires the legislative instruments have a crucial
role, namely in terms of prevention (for example, reducing the fuel
load, preparing the structures of access to the forest and improving the
water availability), more than in the suppression (the availability of the
means for firefighting not should be the main focus), taking into ac-
count the new landscape (land abandonment and high fuel loads), cli-
mate and socio-economic conditions. Forest legislation and policy are,
in fact, determinant for the landscape management (Rosot et al., 2018).
Another question is about the adequacy of forest fire legislation
produced to the verified conditions in each region/country and the
timing of its production and publication. In fact, sometimes it seems
that forest fire legislation is approved and published after great cata-
strophes have occurred, as a reaction of the governments, namely from
the perspective of social appeasement. A preferable approach would be
a proactive action through a framework that allows avoidance of the
consequences yearly visible in many countries as, for example,
Portugal. The proactivity is crucial for the forest fire legislation, as in all
aspects of our lives (Ladanyi et al., 2015; Huntsinger et al., 2017)
Indeed, the discussion about forest fires legislation seems simple
and the meaning of terms like proactive (reacts early and focused on
fire prevention) or reactive (reacts to an action, focused on focused on
fire suppression and forgetting the sources of the problem) seems clear
and easily understandable in a quick search in internet, where they are
terms considered in some cases as antagonistic (Tedim et al., 2015).
However, these differences between these two concepts are not un-
derstood in the same way by the several stakeholders related with the
forest fire. In any case, our perspective is that a reactive forest fire
legislation cannot be considered, also, as proactive, because it is a re-
action to solve anything that already happened. It would be proactive if
the catastrophic fires do not occur again or if at least the reactive leg-
islation reduces the risks of new fire occurrences, however the reality
does not highlight this desirable context. This question about the re-
activity and proactivity related with the forest fire was, also, explored
by a document from the Government of British Columbia (2010).
In this framework, in a perspective of contributing to greater un-
derstanding of forest fire legislation, to clarify our perspective and to
highlight what the international literature says about this topic, the
objective of this work is to review the literature available about this
subject. About sixty works were considered, retrieved from the Web of

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: paulom@eeg.uminho.pt (P.R. Mourao), vdmartinho@esav.ipv.pt (V.D. Martinho).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.04.080
Received 1 October 2018; Received in revised form 27 April 2019; Accepted 28 April 2019
Available online 04 May 2019
1470-160X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Table 1
Summary about the literature related with the forest fire legislation topic.
Author Countries of analysis Objectives/Methodologies Legislation relationships Reactive or proactive legislation or Article/Conference/
both? Comment

Vítková et al. (2017) Central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic,
Germany, Hungary, Lichtenstein, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland)
Fernandes et al. (2017) Portugal
Analyse the literature about the Robinia
pseudoacacia
Point of view about Mourao and Martinho
The legislation influence the landscape Article
distribution of the Robinia pseudoacacia, where the
fire has its impacts
The legislation is a response to large fires, but also Reactive and proactive legislation Comment
P.R. Mourao and V.D. Martinho

(2016) with proactive instruments

Mourao and Martinho Portugal Analyse the Portuguese legislation about forest The legislation is a response to the consequences Reactive legislation Article
(2016) fire among 1980 and 2013, considering time of great forest fires
series econometric methodologies
Santos et al. (2016) Northwest Iberia Evaluate the implications on the land use and on The expansion of fast growing trees must be Need of more proactive legislation Article
the biodiversity from the socioeconomic limited by the legislation, preventing big fires
changes, namely in the rural zones
Robles et al. (2016) Pontevedra (Spain) Analyse woodlands and identify fire risks for the Sometimes the legislation, namely that related Need more proactive instruments Article
nearby buildings, considering spatial models with distance among the forest areas and the to implement the available
buildings, is not complied legislation
Durigan and Ratter (2016) Cerrado (Brazil) Analysis about the prescribed fire Sometimes the legislation available is not Need more proactive instruments Article
implemented to implement the available
legislation
Althoff et al. (2016) Brazil Simulate the climate changes on firewood and The legislation must promote the sustainability on Need of more proactive legislation Article
soil conservation native tropical dry forests
Perez (2015) Spain Analyse the modifications in the legislation Changes in the legislation appeared as Reactive legislation Article
related with forest fires consequence of large fires
Badia and Valldeperas Understand the conditions of the populations in Understand the impact of the legislation in the Article
(2015) the wildland urban interfaces vulnerability of the populations in the wildland
urban interfaces

138
Ramcilovic-Suominen and Ghana Analyse the compliance of the legislation The legal reforms must take into account the social Need of more adjusted legislation Article
Epstein (2015) framework of local populations
Morán et al. (2015) Investigate the use of biomass in small scale Lack of information and legislation about the Article
boilers biomass use
Chávez and Cossío (2014) Peru Examine the consequences of changes in the The implementation of forest legislation depends Need a more accompaniment in Article
forest management, namely concession to on several factor the legislation implementation
private forest firms
Fisher et al. (2014) Western Australia Assess relationships between environment, fire, The legislation influence the forest dynamics Article
flora and fauna
Carreiras et al. (2014) Portugal and Spain Compare forest fire strategies and policies The actual legislation and policies are yet in an Need of more proactive legislation Article
evolutionary framework. The forest fires become a
problem when occurred
Isaev and Korovin (2013) Russia Investigate the new perspectives for the Russian Ineffective forest fire legislation Need of more stable legislation Article
forest
Bennett and Kruger (2013) South Africa Examine the debate about the exotic plantations Sometimes the forest legislation has its own Article
history
Carmenta et al. (2013) Brazilian Amazon Analyse the practice implementation of the Often the practices do not compliance the Need of more adjusted instruments Article
forest policies legislation to implement the legislation
Anand et al. (2013) North America Review of the forest legislation and policies Sometimes de legislation is lagged The forest legislation is an Article
intricacies important instrument
Etheridge and Kayahara Canada Analyse scenarios of forest management, using a Forest legislation is interrelated with the forest Article
(2013) wood supply model management
Bradshaw et al. (2013) Australia Options of land management for the carbon Legislation is interrelated with the forest In some cases the legislation is Article
sequestration management outdated
Montiel-Molina (2013) European Union Analyse the forest fire legislation The forest fire legislation is reactive to large fires Reactive legislation Article
in place to be proactive
Ascoli and Bovio (2013) Italy Literature review about the prescribed fire Lack of adjusted legislation at national level and Need of more proactive and Article
great heterogeneity at regional level adjusted legislation
(continued on next page)
Ecological Indicators 104 (2019) 137–144
 Table 1 (continued)

Author Countries of analysis Objectives/Methodologies Legislation relationships Reactive or proactive legislation or Article/Conference/
both? Comment

Kleeman et al. (2013) United States of America Compare air quality evolution Relationships among the legislation and the Need of more proactive and Article
climate change adjusted legislation
Schultz et al. (2012) Analyse forest restoration programs Legislation is interrelated with the forest Article
management
P.R. Mourao and V.D. Martinho

Ramcilovic-Suominen and Ghana Examine the legislation compliance, through The legal reforms must take into account the social Need of more adjusted legislation Article
Hansen (2012) interviews to the farmers framework of local populations
van Wilgen et al. (2012) South Africa Review of fire management practices and Sometimes there are conflicts among the Need of more adjusted instruments Article
strategies instruments of the legal framework and these rules
are not always well understood
Dunn and Freeman (2011) United Kingdom Review about the greenhouse gas emissions The legislation has an important role in the Need of more adjusted instruments Article
legislation, namely those related with the relationships among several factors (as the fires)
peatlands and the greenhouse gas emissions
Suring et al. (2011) United States of America Analyse the distribution and sustainability of the The forest management legislation has influence in Need of more adjusted instruments Article
wildlife populations other fields
Mamut (2011) Croatia Analyse of regional dynamics where the forest Forest fires and legislation Need of more proactive legislation Article
fires has its influence
Wilkie et al. (2011) Tropical countries Relationships between the hunting and the forest Legislation and forest management Need of more adjusted instruments Article
areas evolution
Ribeiro and Freitas (2010) Brazil Analyse changes in the forest legislation Relationships among the forest legislation Need of more adjusted instruments Article
changes, the biodiversity and the agricultural
productions
Braby (2010) Australia Assessment of the butterfly evolution The legislation should be protective to Need of more adjusted instruments Article
disturbances, where the fire has its importance
Badia et al. (2010) Spain Identify potential vulnerable zones in the The forest fire legislation need to be more effective Need of more proactive legislation Article
interface with the urban areas

139
van't Sant et al. (2009) Netherlands Highlight risk plans The legislation is a crucial instrument to prevent Conference
risk situations
Negrón et al. (2008) United States of America Highlight the partnerships for the forest research The research as an important base for the Need of more adjusted instruments Article
legislation design
Egan (2007) America West Synthesis several papers presented in a workshop The legislation has its impact on the relationships Need of more adjusted instruments Guest Editorial
related with forest fires among the forest and the related ecosystems
Murphy et al. (2007) United States of America Synthesis about forest interactions The legislation and its influence in the forest Need of more adjusted instruments Article
ecology and function
Vosick et al. (2007) Synthesis about forest policy and management The legislation may be an interesting base for the Need of more adjusted instruments Article
forest management
Fearnside (2007) Brazil Examine the environmental impact of human The legislation sometimes it is not fulfilled Need of more adjusted instruments Article
decisions and their impacts on the forests
Nepstad et al. (2006) Brazil Examine the Amazon forest transformations The legislation compliance sometimes depend on Need of more adjusted instruments Article
adjusted approaches from the public institutions
Tacconi and Ruchiat (2006) Indonesia Analyse the fire management The forest fire legislation is inappropriate Need of more adjusted instruments Article
Leimgruber et al. (2005) Review about Landsat applications The legislation has influence in the land Article
management
Partel et al. (2005) Estonia Group species with similar needs of conservation The legislation is important for the biodiversity Need of better legislation Article
Stephens and Ruth (2005) United States of America Present new proposals for the forest fire The available research is an important base for the Need of better legislation Article
legislation design of adjusted policies
Varmola et al. (2004) Finland Review about the forest management The legislation is one of the important factors for Article
the forest sustainability
Hoare (2004) Thailand Analyse about the smoke and forest fires The forest fires legislation promote antagonisms Need of more adjusted instruments Article
problems
McCarter and Smith (2004) United States of America Explore the pressures developed by interest The forest fire legislation and the interest groups Need of impartial legislation Conference
groups in the approved legislation
Barlow and Peres (2004) Brazil Review about the tropical forest fires The legislation may support a more efficient forest Need of more adjusted instruments Article
fire management
(continued on next page)
Ecological Indicators 104 (2019) 137–144
P.R. Mourao and V.D. Martinho Ecological Indicators 104 (2019) 137–144

Article/Conference/ Science platform (main database), about forest fires legislation. This is a
significant issue with strong impacts on the forest and socioeconomic
dynamics (Mourão and Martinho, 2014). It is important to clarify the

Conference

Conference

Conference

Conference

Conference

Conference
discussion about these fields and inform public institutions about the
Comment

Meeting
Article

Article

Article
need for more proactive forest fire legislation rather than reactive
(Shaba, 1999). In fact, the recurring consequences of the forest fires
around the world shows that there is, as yet, much work to do in this
Reactive or proactive legislation or

Needs of more proactive forest fire

Needs of more proactive forest fire

Need of more adjusted instruments

Need of more adjusted instruments

direction. Changing the paradigm, namely in terms of prevention, will
allow several savings of lives among the population (Viegas, 2017).

2. Material and methods

This analysis considered, as base, about sixty documents (articles,

comments and presentations in conferences) available in the Web of
legislation

legislation
Science (http://apps.webofknowledge.com), over the period 1997 to
both?

2017, for the following topic: forest fire legislation. All articles, com-
ments and presentations in conferences found in the Web of Science for
The forest legislation may considered for a more

this topic, and over the period 1997–2017, were considered. These
The legislation is an important support for the

The legislation is an important support for the

The legislation, the biodiversity and the forest

documents were previously explored and systematized in the Table 1.

The legislation should improve the carbon
The legislation has being to become more

The legislation has being to become more

From this previous analysis it was possible to find the main subtopics
highlighted by these studies. These subtopics were presented and ex-
plored deeper in the subsections of the section 3. In fact, considering
that the main objective of this study is to contribute to the debate about
Forest legislation compliance

Forest legislation compliance

Forest legislation compliance

forest and land management

forest and land management

this topic, namely in terms of whether forest fire legislation is reactive

Legislation relationships

or proactive, it is determinant to analyze these documents here pre-

effective fires control

sented. It is possible to consider other online platforms, such as Scopus

multifunctionality

(https://www.scopus.com) or RePEc (http://repec.org) and other to-

sequestration

pics besides rural fires legislation. However, the number of works

proactive

proactive

available in the Web Science for the topic proposed seemed to us suf-
ficient to contribute to a discussion about the legislation associated with
the fires that every year devastate forests around the world. However, it
will be important, considering the study here presented as base, to
Methodologies to control the forest legislation

Methodologies to control the forest legislation

explore other topics and compare the results obtained by the different
Explore GIS frameworks to assess landscape

Present methodologies to control the forest

Examine causes and impacts of forest fires

online platforms (Web of Science, Scopus and RePEc).

Analyse forest fires around the world

Analyse forest fires around the world

In any case, some of the scientific documents consulted are also

Analyse forest carbon sequestration

available in the Scopus and RePEc platforms and the analysis based on
Examine old-growth pine stands
Analyse the forest management

the works found in the Web Science was complemented with other
works, namely those published by or related to international organi-
Objectives/Methodologies

zations such as the United Nations.

legislation compliance

The approach taken into account to develop this literature survey,

about this topic, could proceed in several different ways, as shown for
example by Anand et al. (2013) or Moskwa et al. (2016). However, the
compliance

compliance
changes

most important for us, taking into account the previous analysis of the
documents, it was to clarify the discussion about the questions related
with the reactivity or proactivity of the forest fire legislation, the re-
lationships between the several legal instruments and the relations with
the greenhouse gas emissions.
We consider that a serious discussion about these questions may
bring interesting insights that can be considered by the several stake-
holders in the design of future policies and legislative instruments.
United States of America

United States of America

3. Literature review’s results

Countries of analysis

Forests have important social, economic and environmental con-

tributions for the sustainability of regions and countries, but are fre-
Indonesia
Portugal

Portugal

Portugal
Finland

Russia

quently subject to several pressures, some from natural occurrences

(fires, diseases, pest) and others from the human activity (anthro-
pogenic fires, construction). The related forest legislation may have a
Mielikainen and Hynynen

proactive role preventing negative impacts for the woodlands or a re-

Ganz and Moore (2002)

active one responding to catastrophic occurrences (Mourao and

Caetano et al. (2001)
Morgan et al. (2002)
Table 1 (continued)

Santos et al. (1999)

Martinho, 2016).
Huff et al. (2002)

Paul et al. (2000)

Kokorin (1997)

About the debate related to forest fire legislation, there are many
Juspan (2000)

Shaba (1999)

documents in the literature as those summarized in Table 1 and de-

(2003)

veloped in the following subsections. These subsections were defined,

Author

considering the several subtopics highlighted in the consulted litera-

ture. The subtopics explored in the next subsections are the following:

140
P.R. Mourao and V.D. Martinho
Fig. 1. Similitude analysis (Titles and Abstracts from Table 1).
Reactive or proactive forest fire legislation? Forest and land manage-
ment legislation and forest fires; Forest legislation compliance; In-
stability of forest legislation and conflicts between the legal instru-
ments; Greenhouse gas emissions and forest fire legislation.
Summarily, this table shows what was published in publications
consulted, where the majority are articles, one a comment and some
presentations in conferences. The international literature seems to
agree about more proactive and adjusted forest fire legislative instru-
ments. In other words, legislative instruments are needed to avoid the
serious damages cause every year by the forest fires, after several and,
in our opinion, reactive legal instruments approved by the governments
and public institutions.
We have also produced a similitude graph (Fig. 1), revealing the ties
between the central words identified in Table 1′s works according to
VOSviewer (2019). As expected the expression ‘forest fire’ has an own
system, with other relevant words like ‘paper’, ‘damage’ or ‘problem’.
But other systems have been identified. They are centred around terms
like ‘conservation’-‘biodiversity’ or ‘challenge’-‘scenario’.
3.1. Reactive or proactive forest fire legislation?
Specifically, about the discussion of the forest fire legislation being
dichotomously reactive or proactive, Mourao and Martinho (2016)
considering time series econometric methodologies (between 1980 and
2013) found evidence that forest fire legislation in Portugal is reactive,
namely because after large fires several changes in the legislation have
been made.
Some years before, Montiel-Molina (2013) presented the example of
the forest fires of 2003 in Portugal as a process where the changes in the
legislation were “ad hoc” reactions to problems that had already oc-
curred. Perez (2015) also focused on the reaction of the Spanish in-
stitution with changes in the legislation as a consequence of large fires,
focusing on protection and environmental sustainability.
The need for “more proactive” strategies for combating fire was also
stressed by Ganz and Moore (2002) in the proceedings of a conference
published by the United Nations, when highlighting the dubious effi-
cacy of traditional fire suppression measures. The dichotomy among the
terms reactive and proactive was also considered for forest policies, for
example, by Shaba (1999). In fact, these authors considered that
sometimes public institutions have more reactive than proactive actions
141
Ecological Indicators 104 (2019) 137–144
relatively to the forest fires. For these authors it seems that the gov-
ernments are more concerned with the forest burnt.
Fernandes et al. (2017) refute this perspective presented by Mourao
and Martinho (2016) and the dichotomy between reactive and proac-
tive, defending that the legislation created after large fires is a response
to the new contexts with proactive rules.
Other authors not using directly the expressions reactive or proac-
tive, highlight the existence or importance of proactive legislation
(legal frameworks before occurring catastrophes). In this perspective,
Althoff et al. (2016) suggest more proactive legislation to implement a
more adjusted framework to manage the firewood removal from the
Brazilian tropical dry forest avoiding consequences in soil conservation,
water, carbon capture, biodiversity and sustainability.
In other cases, the use of agricultural and forest biomass may con-
tribute to woodland sustainability, though the current legislation can be
a limitation (Morán et al., 2015). Other authors, e.g. Mamut (2011)
suggest more adjusted measures in both the short- and long-term to
prevent the consequences of the forest fires in the Croatian region of
Dalmatia.
3.2. Forest and land management legislation and forest fires
Forest fire legislation is not only related to the frequency, incidence
and severity of the fires, but also other legislation has relevant impacts
as that associated with forest management (Etheridge and Kayahara,
2013).
In fact, forest management is a balance between several dynamics
and interrelationships, namely among the human interests and the ex-
istent flora and fauna, where the small species, for example, are of
importance (Negrón et al., 2008; Wilkie et al., 2011; Schultz et al.,
2012; Fisher et al., 2014). The forest and land management choices
impact on the ecology, on the available natural resources, on the
wildlife species (Partel et al., 2005; Murphy et al., 2007; Braby, 2010;
Ribeiro and Freitas, 2010; Suring et al., 2011; Bennett and Kruger,
2013) and consequently on the severity of the forest fires. Well designed
policies and legal frameworks may be interesting supports for adjusted
forest management and planning (Juspan, 2000; Morgan et al., 2002;
Huff et al., 2002; Barlow and Peres, 2004; Varmola et al., 2004; Vosick
et al., 2007). The new technologies bring new instruments as supports
for the forest management and for efficient organization of forestry
activities (Leimgruber et al., 2005). The available research is another
important base for the design of adjusted forest fire legislation and
planning (Stephens and Ruth, 2005). For the forest management it is
crucial to design legislation that promotes biodiversity maintenance
and forest multifunctionality (Mielikainen and Hynynen, 2003).
The landscape management of the Robinia pseudoacacia in Central
Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lichtenstein,
Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland) is an example of a context
dependent on the legislation available, where the fire has its relevance
(Vítková et al., 2017). Another example is the management of the forest
in zones, as in northwest Iberia, through legislation that limits the ex-
pansion of fast growing trees that may maintain biodiversity and pre-
vent the occurrences of large forest fires (Santos et al., 2016).
3.3. Forest legislation compliance
The compliance of the legislation available is another question, as
verified for a forest zone in Pontevedra (Spain), where the majority of
the buildings do not meet the minimum distance from the forested areas
as defined by the legislation (Robles et al., 2016). The interrelationships
between the population and the forested areas in the wildland urban
interfaces, considering the available legislation, were also analysed by
Badia and Valldeperas (2015). Sometimes, it is difficult for the gov-
ernments to enforce the available legislation because of several factors,
including the characteristics of the individual countries (Fearnside,
2007). However, with adjusted approaches from the public institutions
P.R. Mourao and V.D. Martinho
it could be possible to sensitize the populations and the economic op-
erators to the need to comply with the applicable legislation (Nepstad
et al., 2006).
In a similar perspective, in Cerrado (Brazil) the legislation asso-
ciated with the prescribed fire does not fulfil the consequences of the
forest management associated with the biodiversity and natural oc-
currences prevention (Durigan and Ratter, 2016). Sometimes, this
compliance depends on more adjusted forest legislation that takes into
account the social norms of the local population, as verified by
Ramcilovic-Suominen and Hansen (2012) and Ramcilovic-Suominen
and Epstein (2015) for Ghana or on more awareness campaigns
(Carmenta et al., 2013). The importance of taking into account the
opinion and the perceptions of local people in the legislation design was
also highlighted by Badia et al. (2010). For the success of any new
policy or legal instrument it is fundamental to consider the experience
and the accumulated knowledge by the resident population (Tacconi
and Ruchiat, 2006; Egan, 2007).
It is, in fact, important that the official institutions understand that
an efficient implementation of the legislation depends on several factors
and that this implementation needs to be an accompaniment for per-
tinent adjustments (Chávez and Cossío, 2014) and should be updated
(Anand et al., 2013; Bradshaw et al., 2013). In any case, the legislation
compliance can be monitored by new technologies that allow the
creation of new methodologies and instruments (Santos et al., 1999;
Paul et al., 2000; Caetano et al., 2001).
3.4. Instability of forest legislation and conflicts between the legal
instruments
The conflicts among the several instruments defined in the legal
framework are other questions, which limit the efficient application of
the legislation to reduce the risk of forest fires, as those found among
the forest intervention zones and the improvements in combatting fires
(Carreiras et al., 2014). In other cases, it is difficult to implement the
available forest fire legislation, because it promotes divergences be-
tween institutions and local people (Hoare, 2004). In any case, the
legislation is an important instrument to prevent risk situations and to
implement adjusted plans (van't Sant et al., 2009).
The existence of great heterogeneity (sometimes overlapping) in the
legislation is another important question that can create confusion and
difficulties in the effective implementation of policies (Ascoli and
Bovio, 2013). The conflicts between the several instruments of the legal
framework and the complexity of these rules, sometimes is an obstacle
to the correct application of the available forest fire legislation, namely
that related, for example, with the prescribed fire (van Wilgen et al.,
2012).
The instability of the forest legislation (Isaev and Korovin, 2013)
may create more difficulties for the several agents that operate with
forest management and with forest fire prevention, namely in terms of
adaptation, local population involvement and creation of expertise.
Another question is about the pressures exercised by interest groups
to condition the kind of forest fires legislation approved (McCarter and
Smith, 2004) as on many occasions the legal framework is in-
appropriate and more expensive, with impacts on the public budget and
for the local population.
3.5. Greenhouse gas emissions ad forest fire legislation
Another question is the relationship between several factors and
greenhouse gas emissions (Dunn and Freeman, 2011). Forest fires have
a significant impact on the greenhouse gas emissions and sometimes
these implications are not well considered in the legislative instru-
ments. Climate change may also impact the incidence and severity of
forest fires (Kleeman et al, 2013).
It is important that the legislation promotes a sustainable relation-
ship between the forest and the environment, where the forestry has a
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Ecological Indicators 104 (2019) 137–144
fundamental role in carbon sequestration and environmental pre-
servation (Kokorin, 1997).
The interrelationships between forest fires and greenhouse gas
emissions are issues that are explored more deeply in the literature,
where it seems that impact assessment of the fires on the environment is
significantly underestimated, namely in years of great severities and
incidences.
4. Policy suggestions
Taking into account the literature review presented above and the
main questions which have been highlighted, in a perspective of
minimizing the several consequences verified every year around the
world with forest fires, with regard to forest fires legislation it seems to
us important that, namely, public organizations take into account the
following aspects:
- Avoid producing forest legislation under pressure as a reaction to
large forest fires. Generally, these legislative reactions only pacify
public opinion and have limited effect on the prevention of future
catastrophes (Isaev and Korovin, 2013). Therefore, it is more ef-
fective to generate a legislation agenda and to manage its discussion
along the legislative tenure.
- Produce more adjusted legal instruments and seek to be more
proactive, focusing less on the burnt area and more on the active
trees’ resources and for the forestry sector and dependent commu-
nities (Ganz and Moore, 2002).
- Discuss more with the populations and with the several stake-
holders, understanding their concerns, opinions and daily routines.
This will improve the adequacy of the designed policies designed
and the compliance of the approved legislation approved (Perez,
2015).
- Take into consideration the several stakeholders’ perspective, un-
derstanding that the mitigation of the consequences of forest fires
requires multidisciplinary contributions. It is important to create
work groups with different perspectives to discuss seriously and
independently the forest fires (Mourao and Martinho, 2016).
- Create specialized commissions to analyze the already available
legislation, with the main objective of trying to identify conflicts
among legal instruments, minimizing the number of ineffective/
obsolete legislative documents (Kokorin, 1997).
5. Discussion and final remarks
The literature reviews about the forest fire legislation around the
world shows that the great majority of the related documents were
published through scientific research and very few through opinion
papers or comments. In fact, forest legislation is an extensive topic as it
presents the available literature that reflects the dimension and the
complexity of these issues objectively and directly. In fact, the research
works published address the following subtopics: reactive or proactive
forest fire legislation; forest and land management legislation and forest
fires; forest legislation compliance; instability of the forest legislation
and conflicts between the legal instruments; and greenhouse gas
emissions and forest fire legislation. Another question highlighted here
is that forest fire prevention does not depend only on directly related
legislation, but also from other legislative documents that can be
complementary or conflicting.
With regard to the dichotomy between proactive and reactive forest
fire legal frameworks, the international literature agrees that in general
more proactive legislative instruments (at least more adjusted, con-
sidering, for example, improvements in legislation and institutions in
both the short- and long-term (Mamut, 2011), the relevance of peat-
lands for carbon sequestration (Dunn and Freeman, 2011) and the
certification for the fire utilization (Ascoli and Bovio, 2013)) are needed
to prevent the yearly destruction from fires. In practice, governments
P.R. Mourao and V.D. Martinho
must think more about the forest and less about the burnt area. Authors
as Montiel-Molina (2013) and Perez (2015) defend, as do Mourao and
Martinho (2016), that forest fire legislation is markedly reactive to
large fires in the European Union countries to large fires.
As stressed before, the directly related legislation does not only have
an impact on forest fires. The legislative documents may be considered
as support, and fundamental instruments for forest management and
planning and so have relevant impacts on forest dynamics and on the
frequency and severity of fires. In this perspective and for a more ef-
fective implementation, the legislation related to forests must be more
interrelated (avoiding, for example, conflicts between instruments
(Carreiras et al., 2014) and great heterogeneity (Ascoli and Bovio,
2013)) to be complementary in sustainable management plans.
A more effective implementation of and more compliance with
forest legislation is another aspect that must to be taken into account in
these discussions. In fact, public opinion often tends to the view that
there is already much legislation, but that it is inadequately im-
plemented. In this case, to produce a more operational application of
the available legislation, it is important to consider the local cultural
and social dynamics and listen to the popular wisdom from the local
population that has lived in the area for many years.
The conflicts and the instability of the legal instruments are other
problems that make it difficult to obtain the results expected from
legislative documents. Indeed, the frequent reactive production of leg-
islation after large fires sometimes only brings more instability and
confusion for the several stakeholders associated with the forest fires.
This is another question about the problematic trend of the forest fire
legislation to be more reactive than proactive. In the pressure to reac-
tively produce legislation after great destruction to appease public
opinion, the probability of approving conflicting legal instruments may
increase significantly.
In a framework of the need for more proactivity in the forest fire
legislation, in future researches about these topics will be important to
analyse the relationships between the short-term reactions and the
long-term proactive measures. This analysis may bring more lights
about the more effective instruments of forest fire policy and legislation
created in contexts of pressure after great fires, in terms of long-term
proactivity. Another relevant question should be to analyse the im-
portance of the interest groups affected by the fires or even potentially
benefited from them. We also consider as a relevant challenge to ac-
tually analyze the primary policy documents of each country con-
sidering an alternative robust set of criteria. Finally, extending the
searchable words in our database, like including ‘burnt’ or ‘law’ will
expand the queries associated to this work.
Acknowledgment
This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT – Portuguese
Foundation for Science and Technology within the project UID/ECO/
03182/2019.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.04.080.
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