FIRE-ADAPT is funded by a programme of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) that allows the exchange of personnel between partner organisations through secondments, i.e. work and research stays. Recently, Julián Cuevas and Jonathan Troncho, two members of staff of the Pau Costa Foundation (PCF) team, did a one-month secondment at the Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN), where Carlos Pinto, Project Manager, hosted them.
Julián works in Training and Operations at PCF instructing in certain topics within Integrated Fire Management (IFM) and, in the case of emergencies, advising and assisting them. Jonathan is a Project Technician dedicated to projects on wildfire risk management, such as Fire Flocks, which involves understanding both territorial and forest management and the different phases of the emergency response. In this interview, Julián and Jonathan tell us about their experience in Bolivia.
What was the objective of your secondment in Bolivia?
Jonathan: Basically, the same objectives of FIRE-ADAPT: exchange knowledge between different contexts and realities at a global scale, and share points of view and experiences around wildfire management. Wildfires today, or the problems associated with them, are a global phenomenon to which we must respond together. As a fire community, we must try to network and build bridges between different realities. That will lead us to be more efficient when we have to collaborate in an emergency, as we have recently seen in Canada, Chile, and in so many places. Also, as a foundation, we went to develop new points of view and expand our knowledge. In short, contribute, receive and share.
Julián: Yes, and all this within the framework of IFM in other realities and different countries that have a common link that, unfortunately, is the same problem at the macroscale level: the context of climate change, which is what unites all the countries that participate in this project. In addition, each of the countries has its own problems at a microscale level.
What activities did you carry out?
Julián: One of them was a foundation course on prescribed burns that we taught for a week in beautiful facilities in Chochís, a town within the municipality of Roboré, in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. There we treated in an integrated way all the aspects involved in IFM and the use of fire, in this case technical fire.
Jonathan: We also accompanied FAN, foresters and other colleagues in the identification and delimitation of strategic management zones, which include what would be the strategic management points in Spain (puntos estratégicos de gestión, PEG), but adapted to a reality of IFM; we participated in training activities to local communities and staff of the City Council of Roboré; and we were integrating ourselves into the reality of the communities. It was about understanding how they work and what their situation is to then be able to better direct future actions, have a clear idea about the entire context of the project and thus be able to translate it in the best way intothe deliverables for the European Commission. At the end of the day, we sought to integrate and understand, and, within that, we did the burning course and other trainings, we visited areas, etc.
Julián: We visited the Chiquitano Dry Forest, which is a tropical dry forest that is a fire-sensitive ecosystem located in the Chiquitanía. Specifically, within it, the Tucavaca Nature Reserve is sensitive. We also went to the Pantanal, another totally different ecosystem that is fire-dependent. So, we are talking about two ecosystems that need fire differently and with different problems and social and political contexts that must be considered when managing. Seeing this helped us to open our minds.
For what purpose are communities in Bolivia trained?
Jonathan: The political situation there is delicate, and people can’t rely solely on the emergency system managed by the national government. To overcome this reality, they have opted for the communities and carry out manejo comunitario del fuego (community-based fire management). It is the people of the territory themselves, trained and voluntarily, who respond to the emergency. They have tools, personal protective equipment, training programmes, etc. In some ways they depend on organisations and structures of higher status, but the muscle of the response is the community.
Julián: That’s right. Communities are like first responders. In this case FAN, together with instructors from DIRENA (Dirección de Recursos Naturales), trains them and, in the case of a wildfire, as they are the ones who are closest, they are the first to respond.
Do communities also use fire as a management tool?
Julián: For them, fire is one more tool available to manage the landscape or the territory; it is part of their toolbox. Something that is intended to be done is to use the term zonas estratégicas de manejo, on which we have advanced and which has evolved from the Myers triangle of IFM and will include zonas estratégicas de gestión (like the PEGs in Spain), zonas estratégicas de capacitación and zonas estratégicas de protección. The idea is to manage using fire, if it is most appropriate, within these zonas estratégicas de protección.
That is where the communities come in to manage their wildland-urban interface plans, where the village is settled, and those forest exploitations of which they live; or for farmers and shepherds to use fire as a tool around their properties so that these don’t burn, or within them to improve the palatability, that is the quality of the pastures, which is one of the utilities of prescribed fire. But there are farmers who can’t burn their pastures because their cows wouldn´t have nothing to eat. Then, you must attend to each of the small demands to try to reach an understanding between all local actors.
Jonathan: In addition, there is a lack of resources that doesn´t only happen at community level, but also at national level: there are no aerial firefighting resources, organisations don’t have vehicles, foresters don’t have money for fuel, etc. This shouldn’t be understood as a criticism, but as a reality that colleagues in Bolivia must deal with every day. In any case, it’s key to build bridges and create a robust and empowered collaborative fabric to deal with territorial management, including the emergency response.
What areas of knowledge did you explore?
Jonathan: During the course we talked about aspects of fire ecology, prescribed burns and use of technical fire, planning, safety, organisation, logistics, research, and human factor among other topics that arose naturally.
Julián: I would also highlight the social sciences, art, and culture. We´ve seen social and cultural aspects that we didn’t know coming from Europe and that directly affect landscape management at various scales. For example, at the cultural level, the own forest exploitation by the communities that we aren´t doing here because we don´t have the same trees. For example, the communities grow the almendra chiquitana, which is very good and very rich in proteins and amino acids, and from there they make money. They also have another tree whose sap they use to make creams. In short, they live from different types of exploitation and that caught my attention.
Continuing with the cultural aspects, we also had the opportunity to see some cave paintings to which the Director of the Risk Management Area of the Mayor’s Office of Roboré, Fernando Mendoza, took us to learn about some of Bolivia’s history. We were fascinated because that’s where we saw the first impression of a map. They already knew how to move and orient themselves from symbols painted on the wall of “here there´s water”, “here there´s hunting”, etc.
What have you taken home from your secondment?
Jonathan: Apart from, without a doubt, the personal experience, which is very heavy and possible thanks to the fact that work allows you to know other countries, cultures, people and realities, as a foundation we bring a much broader vision than we took there.
Going to countries with such different climatic, social and other kinds of realities enriches you as a professional a lot. The job that Julián and I have now, and all the colleagues who will go on secondments later, is to transfer this vision to the rest of the Foundation, to be able to act as a speaker of what we saw and lived. In the end not everyone can do secondments, but it´s good that we grow both personally and as an organisation. After all, that is the objective of FIRE-ADAPT: to form collectives or expand collective visions.
In short, we took more than we contributed. We talked about courses on burns and many very interesting things, but in the end, being able to be there and see all that… either you live it or it’s impossible. Reading it, no matter how well written it is, you will not be able to take it with you.
Julián: I agree with what Jonathan says. We also took an approach to IFM that we don´t have in Spain and Europe. Here there is, above all, prevention. I’ve been to different countries, and I have seen that IFM is managed differently depending on the country and its reality, which is based on microrealities. Communities have a reality, and not all communities have the same reality; farmers, shepherds and foresters each have another, and unifying all that is a real challenge. I’ve taken the approach they have there: how they do it, work and get ahead despite the difficulties they have, especially political. They pull forward day by day. The reality here in Europe is very different, and it would be very interesting to recover IFM or strategic management zones looking for another approach adapted to this reality, and that we intend to put together into some kind of guidelines.
What has this experience brought to FIRE-ADAPT?
Julián: This has been the beginning of an index to generate guidelines on capacity building for IFM that seek to integrate all the items that make up IFM (approaches, policies, legislation, etc.) finding links or connections that allow working in any of the countries involved in the project. That´s the challenge really: to find an index that allows us to work encompassing the whole compendium of things that IFM has, and then find these links to be able to replicate it in other countries and put it in common. That is the challenge and there we are, just beginning.
More about your experience in Bolivia
Something about Bolivia that caught your attention
Jonathan: Undoubtedly, the cultural aspect, which they have very rooted. In addition, there are many different cultures with radically different ways of living and managing the territory.
Julián: Besides, people’s attitude. Whatever happens, they’re always joking, and I loved that. When they must be serious, they are serious, but within that seriousness, to play it down, everyone jokes. I loved that because if you’re with a moderately serious problem and you’re talking to them, suddenly they tell a joke, you laugh, and the problem seems less of a problem.
Any new words you have learned
Chapié, thank you
Macruca, muscle soreness
Chochis, fury of the wind (we thought this one was very beautiful).
A Bolivian meal that you liked
Julián: The chicharrón de cola de Lagarto that we ate in Puerto Suárez.
Jonathan: The kjaras of Hotel Churapa in Santiago de Chiquitos. They are a typical Friday dish. I remember arriving tired from the whole week, eating a plate of kjaras in good company and ending up good as new.
A memory of Bolivia to keep forever
Julián: The Torre de Chochís or Muela del Diablo, a very cool rock formation that is an icon of Chochís.
Jonathan: El Portón, a very beautiful place to which there is a short but intense climb and with stunning views where you lose your gaze. We recommend going up at sunset, when the parabas (or macaws) return to the nest.
