Supporting community engagement is a central part of integrated fire management approaches. And while Colombia has a long history of cultural burning –particularly in the Orinoquia region– there is little awareness about the importance of community-led prescribed burns and of the potential of technologies for emissions reduction from traditional fire management (ER TFM), nor is there an effective monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for managing wildfires. Colombia has expressed interest in exploring how ER TFM methodologies can support integrated fire management in specific regions. 

This proposal also addresses mainstreaming gender issues in fire management. For example, ISFMI’s Women in Fire network has linked Indigenous community women and other women from a cross-disciplinary background working or interested in global fire-related topics, including fire management operations training. The strategies in this proposal will consider fire management from the perspectives of women and indigenous communities, bearing in mind that women from different communities may have differentiated roles and needs.

This proposal will specifically focus on savanna and tropical dry forest ecosystems. Integrated fire management and traditional fire management place a specific emphasis on savanna and dry forest ecosystems primarily because these environments are fire-dependent rather than fire-sensitive. Unlike ecosystems that may be adversely affected by frequent fires, savannas, and dry forests have evolved with a natural dependence on periodic burning. Indigenous and local communities have developed intricate knowledge of these ecosystems over generations, recognizing that controlled burns enhance environmental conditions and mitigate the likelihood of uncontrolled wildfires. For this reason, this proposal seeks to harness the biodiversity benefits of controlled burns, fostering biodiversity and livelihood benefits in these specific ecosystems.