Integrated Fire Management: five years of learning in the Cerrado

Integrated fire management was still a new and controversial concept in Brazil: using prescribed burns, planned and monitored, to prevent large wildfires. After five years, GIZ's project in the Cerrado had accumulated studies, reports and lessons scattered across dozens of documents. All of this had to become a clear publication for the technicians and managers who make decisions about fire in protected areas.

We put together a work plan with the GIZ team, read the accumulated documentation and went to the field in Palmas to interview people who practice fire management. From there, we organized the content into four pillars: integrated and adaptive fire management, participatory management of protected areas, monitoring tools, and dissemination of lessons learned.

We created a dedicated graphic design and a series of illustrations celebrating the landscapes and textures of the Cerrado, drawn to also work as icons throughout the book. The publication was delivered ready for print and web, with open files for future editions.

GIZ and its partners gained a systematic reference on fire management in the Cerrado, in language accessible to public officials. The illustrations have since been used in other project materials as well.