Making choices: prioritising the protection of biodiversity in wildfires
John C. Z. Woinarski
A * , Phillipa C. McCormack B , Jan McDonald C , Sarah Legge A D , Stephen T. Garnett A , Brendan Wintle E and Libby Rumpff E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0810, Australia.
B Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide, 178 North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
C Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 89, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.
D Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
E School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic., Australia.
* Correspondence to: john.woinarski@cdu.edu.au
International Journal of Wildland Fire 32(7) 1031-1038 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22229
Submitted: 8 December 2022 Accepted: 7 April 2023 Published: 26 April 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Biodiversity is in chronic decline, and extreme events – such as wildfires – can add further episodes of acute losses. Fires of increasing magnitude will often overwhelm response capacity, and decision-makers need to make choices about what to protect. Conventionally, such choices prioritise human life then infrastructure then biodiversity. Based on shortcomings revealed in the 2019–20 Australian wildfires, we propose a series of linked steps that can be used to identify and prioritise biodiversity assets (including their priority relative to other types of assets), enhance and implement their protection through planning and practice, and strengthen legislation to safeguard them.
Keywords: biodiversity, climate change, conservation, emergency response, fire management plans, prioritisation, sacred values, wildfires.
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