Abstract: |
Forests provide society with a series of environmental benefits which could nevertheless be lost through poor management or a lack of incentives to preserve them. These benefits include the protection of the soil and the hydrological cycle, the fixing of atmospheric carbon, biological diversity, landscape, recreation, etc. These benefits are rarely valued until harmful effects make their presence felt in the form of damage. Forest fires represent a direct physical manifestation of those effects. Steps taken as preventative measures assist in ensuring these environmental benefits are not lost. Regulatory mechanisms have been proved insufficient to channel the acts of individuals into patterns of behaviour which avoid forest fires. Such measures have proved difficult to implement and require a high, often excessive, rate of investment in surveillance and enforcement. Economic instruments such as subsidies, taxes and the creation of markets, in addition to voluntary agreements, complement regulatory efforts at fire prevention. This paper outlines appropriate fire prevention mechanisms and their consequences, thus providing sufficient incentives for society to have regard to the environmental benefits generated by forest areas when engaged in decision making processes. |
