“Firefighters use water to control fires, but indigenous communities use fire to control fire”

Wildfires have become an increasing problem in recent decades, especially in the humid tropical forests of southern Venezuela. This has been augmented by climate change, with longer, hotter and drier dry seasons. Indigenous peoples have always used fire, and used it smartly for cultivation, hunting, fishing, curative, and many other purposes. In this region, a common practice used by the governmental hydroelectric company and forest firefighting bodies was to ‘push’ wildfires, most of which start in savannas and cultivated areas (conucos), into the wet forests where they used to stop. But now they don’t, and the forests burn. In response, an ‘official’ zero policy was applied in the Park, and although well intended, this only made matters worse. Starting in the 1980s, firefighting teams equipped with helicopters and all the latest technologies came into the regions and demonized all use of fire, whereas in indigenous cultures, fire has always been a way a life. In fact, indigenous peoples equate the banning of fires as the government saying, “don’t eat”. And this created so much conflict. Also, prohibiting fire leads to a build-up of fuels, eventually leading to more intense fires, increasing the problems and moving further away from solutions. The use of fire is also integrally linked to the concept of territoriality, and this issue cannot be resolved until we agree on what that means.

We need ‘fire smart territories’, where the traditional uses of fire are not outlawed, but where we combine local, traditional knowledge with firefighting technologies and research, and co-create ways to live with fire. The National Institute of Parks (INPARQUES) must take on board traditional wisdom on the use of fire, and incorporate this into national strategies that are inclusive of local needs. We need pyrodiversity, and we should manage fire with fire – literally. But this needs a complete paradigm shift.

I have worked with the indigenous Pemón people in and around the Canaima National Park in southeastern Venezuela since 1999, on projects related to fire management. This area is in the heart of Guyana Shield region, which also includes parts of northern Brazil, southeast Colombia, Guyana, and extends to Suriname and French Guiana. The region is part of northern Amazon basin, with high biological and cultural richness. I started as an ecologist and began to specialize in fire. But the more I worked in this field, the more I saw the crucial importance of social and cultural perspectives that seemed to have been ignored in more formal fire management approaches. I saw the need for spaces for intercultural exchange, platforms for participatory dialogue, where national bodies, indigenous peoples, local communities and researchers can talk to each other, and learn from each other, and together develop the right way forward. Fire is an elemental force in cultural societies as it is in nature, and it can never be extinguished completely. So we must work together to manage it, allowing for the good that it brings while reducing the harm it can cause. There have been advances, but what is needed now to scale this up to the national, regional and global level. Venezuela is of the first Latin American countries to have adopted new fire policies that include this intercultural vision, but formal legalization and a national plan are still pending. But progress at regional level is slow, with some exceptions such as Brazil. And especially within governmental bodies but also amongst researchers, fire is still seen only as an evil.