Serra do Tombador Nature Reserve. The study addresses the careful and methodical use of burning, rather than uncontrolled fires of natural or criminal origin (photo: Alessandra Fidelis/UNESP)
Published on 08/25/2025
By José Tadeu Arantes | Agência FAPESP – Fire is not always the enemy of nature. In some ecosystems, it can be essential to conserve biodiversity. The key lies in the context, including climate, soil, vegetation, evolutionary history, and – above all – how humans use or abuse it. This is the central message of the book Fire in the South American Ecosystems, published by Springer in volume 250 of the Ecological Studies series.
Organized by Brazilian ecologists Alessandra Fidelis, a professor at São Paulo State University (UNESP), and Vânia Pivello, a professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), the book is the first scientific compendium entirely dedicated to the topic of fire in South American ecosystems.
The book has 14 chapters and 56 authors from institutions in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, France, Germany, Portugal, and the United States. It addresses the latitudinal and altitudinal diversity of the continent, covering fields, savannas, forests, mountains, and wetlands – from the Cerrado to the Chaco and the Llanos to the Amazon.
“For a long time, fire was seen as synonymous with disaster and destruction. But for indigenous peoples and traditional communities, it’s a tool for management, protection, and survival. Our goal was to compile the knowledge accumulated over the last few decades on this still controversial topic,” says Fidelis.
The book was conceived as a response to a historical gap in the international literature, which, until recently, focused on forest fires in the Northern Hemisphere, such as those in the temperate forests of the United States and Europe. “Many South American ecosystems are dominated by highly flammable C4 grasses, such as those in the Cerrado. These environments have evolutionary histories marked by natural fire,” explains William Bond, professor emeritus at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, in the book’s preface. He adds that the book, the product of a new generation of researchers, provides fundamental knowledge for making better environmental decisions.
One of the highlights of the book is the chapter on traditional uses of fire by indigenous peoples and local communities, written by authors from Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. According to them, a wealth of empirical knowledge has been accumulated over centuries and gradually incorporated into public policies in countries such as Bolivia.
“The challenge is to overcome the Eurocentric paradigm that criminalizes the use of fire. In many cases, the complete exclusion of fire has caused more harm than good, promoting forest densification and the loss of species adapted to fire,” says Pivello. The researcher is referring to the judicious and methodical use of burning, not uncontrolled fires, whether natural or criminal.
In addition, the book contains chapters dedicated to the Cerrado, the Pampas, the Southern Fields, the Llanos del Orinoco, the mountain fields, the Pantanal, Chile’s Mediterranean ecosystems, the Amazon Rainforest, and the temperate forests of southern Argentina and Chile. In each chapter, fire is analyzed as an ecological, historical, evolutionary, and political factor.
In the chapter “Fire in the Anthropocene,” researchers from various Brazilian institutions, including the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the Natural Disaster Surveillance and Early Warning Center (CEMADEN), discuss how climate change, deforestation, and intensified extreme weather events have drastically altered fire regimes. The authors warn of the increasing frequency and intensity of fires in areas that were previously protected by natural barriers, such as the Amazon Rainforest.
In the final chapter, the organizers and three other experienced fire ecology and public policy experts summarize the main challenges and opportunities for fire management in the coming years. The authors suggest an agenda based on three pillars: recognizing the ecological and cultural diversity of fire regimes, integrating scientific knowledge with traditional knowledge, and developing flexible public policies sensitive to local specifics.
The book reflects the consolidation of Brazilian research on the judicious use of fire in ecosystem management. It also aims to expand the dissemination of knowledge produced in South America, which has historically been published in Spanish or Portuguese, making it inaccessible to the international community. “We want this knowledge to help environmental analysts, conservation managers, and public policymakers make more sensible and contextualized decisions,” Fidelis concludes.
The book was supported by FAPESP through grants 15/06743-0 and 23/16620-0. More information about Fire in the South American Ecosystems can be found on the publisher’s website: link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-89372-8.
Source: https://agencia.fapesp.br/55697
