What is a ‘Whole-of-Society’ Approach to Wildfire? POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project Launches New Lightning Explainer Series
What is a whole-of-society approach? And how can it help reduce catastrophic wildfires?
These questions were the starting point for creating the latest brief published by the POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project, based at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies.
The short explainer, titled Wildfire and a Whole-of-Society Approach, is the first publication in POLIS’ new “Lightning Explainer” series, which will explore critical and emerging issues concerning wildfire resilience and inform governance and other reforms, including the need for deeper research and further investigations.
“Our goal with this first explainer — and with the Lightning Explainer series in general — is to not only increase understanding, but to stimulate discussion and dialogue around landscape and wildfire resilience,” said co-author Andrea Barnett, project facilitator and analyst at the POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project.
In the face of increasingly catastrophic wildfires, there is urgent need for additional resources, capacity and capability, efforts, and expertise to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of wildfire impacts on community safety, watershed security, and ecosystem health.
“The increasing scale and challenge of the wildfire crisis requires a response of similar magnitude,” said lead author Oliver M. Brandes, project lead at the POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project. “We need robust action both within and beyond the provincial government — action that extends to key players outside of government and broader societal engagement.”
The authors describe the importance of a coordinated response that involves the provincial government in collaboration with Indigenous, local, and federal governments, industry, civil society, practitioners, local experts, and communities.
“A whole-of-society approach to wildfire will foster innovation, local agency, and broader accountability — ultimately resulting in better outcomes on the ground,” said Oliver M. Brandes. “In our view, the provincial government is a crucial catalyst for unlocking this more collaborative, and ultimately innovative, approach.”
As described in the brief, an expanded whole-of-society approach to wildfire will create opportunities for new players and potential new roles in the areas of:
- Ecosystem-based fuel management.
- Increased prescribed and cultural burning.
- Community engagement, trust building, and education.
- Harm reduction through, for example, programs like FireSmart.
- Place-based, landscape-level, and community-based pilots and plans.
Future POLIS research on a whole-of-society approach will examine the specifics how best to enable such a model of distributed and shared authority in B.C. Future Lightning Explainers will explore topics including, carbon, conservation, fuel management and impacts on watershed security, economics, and health.
