Review of CO2 emissions mitigation through prescribed burning

ODDI, F. J.,; LOGUERCIO, G. A. ; DEFOSSÉ, G. E.

Chania

Conferencia; 4th Fire Paradox Annual meeting; 2008

Mediterranean Agronomic Institut of Chania - Fire Paradox - European Union

A study was set in pine afforestations of the Andean region of Patagonia, Argentina, with the objective of evaluating the potential of prescribed burns for reducing GHG?s emissions. The scenario was established for a period of ten years, in which prescribed burns were compared to the traditional management scheme, which included the probability of annual average of wildfire occurrence based on available wildfire statistics. The two contrasting situations were: 1) Managed afforestations, affected by the annual average rate of wildfires occurred in the same type of afforestations in the region, without prescribed burning, and 2) Same as 1) but with the application of prescribed burning. In order to estimate carbon stocks, and CO2 removals and emissions, we followed the directions given for GHG´s inventories on the AFOLU sector of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). REsults showed that prescribed burnings probed to be a management practice that could not only help prevent wildfires to achieve productive objectives, but also an efficient tool to mitigate worldwide GHG?s emissions.