Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action

Wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are increasingly threatening lives and livelihoods. These growing impacts have prompted a paradigm shift toward proactive wildfire management that prioritizes prevention and preparedness instead of response. Despite this shift, many communities remain...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
Main Authors: Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, Sarah Dickson-Hoyle, Sarah L. Ravensbergen, Shannon M. Hagerman, Lori D. Daniels, Jemina Coutu
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125
https://doaj.org/article/5da4584a847a4effae4e238b505d2f91
id ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:5da4584a847a4effae4e238b505d2f91
record_format openpolar
spelling ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:5da4584a847a4effae4e238b505d2f91 2023-05-15T16:16:11+02:00 Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz Sarah Dickson-Hoyle Sarah L. Ravensbergen Shannon M. Hagerman Lori D. Daniels Jemina Coutu 2022-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125 https://doaj.org/article/5da4584a847a4effae4e238b505d2f91 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125/full https://doaj.org/toc/2624-893X 2624-893X doi:10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125 https://doaj.org/article/5da4584a847a4effae4e238b505d2f91 Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, Vol 5 (2022) wildfire preparedness wildland-urban interface community capacity risk perception wildfire prevention shared responsibility Forestry SD1-669.5 Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125 2022-12-31T16:00:20Z Wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are increasingly threatening lives and livelihoods. These growing impacts have prompted a paradigm shift toward proactive wildfire management that prioritizes prevention and preparedness instead of response. Despite this shift, many communities remain unprepared for wildfires in the WUI due to diverse individual and social-political factors influencing engagement with proactive management approaches. The catastrophic fire seasons of 2017, 2018, and 2021 in British Columbia (BC), Canada, highlighted just how vulnerable communities continue to be and the urgent need to understand the factors limiting engagement to future resilience to wildfire. Our study, conducted prior to the catastrophic fire season in 2017, surveyed 77 community leaders across BC to better understand the factors driving engagement, including risk perception, preferences and support for approaches, and key barriers limiting progress. We demonstrate that wildfire risk is an urgent issue facing communities across BC, but a range of factors drive variable community engagement with proactive wildfire management. First Nations and smaller (≤5,000 residents) communities were less likely to have developed a community wildfire plan, even though First Nations were significantly more concerned than municipalities/regional districts about certain values (such as drinking water and biodiversity) that were at risk from wildfire. In general, proactive approaches that were considered effective were also the most supported. The most highly supported approaches included enforcement of regulations and education, both of which are considered provincial responsibility in BC and are unlikely to alter community values in the WUI. In contrast, approaches involving prescribed burning of the understory had the highest levels of opposition. Despite variability in these individual factors, social-political barriers related to financial and social (time and expertise) capacity primarily limited engagement with proactive ... Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 5
institution Open Polar
collection Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
op_collection_id ftdoajarticles
language English
topic wildfire preparedness
wildland-urban interface
community capacity
risk perception
wildfire prevention
shared responsibility
Forestry
SD1-669.5
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
spellingShingle wildfire preparedness
wildland-urban interface
community capacity
risk perception
wildfire prevention
shared responsibility
Forestry
SD1-669.5
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz
Sarah Dickson-Hoyle
Sarah L. Ravensbergen
Shannon M. Hagerman
Lori D. Daniels
Jemina Coutu
Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action
topic_facet wildfire preparedness
wildland-urban interface
community capacity
risk perception
wildfire prevention
shared responsibility
Forestry
SD1-669.5
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
description Wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are increasingly threatening lives and livelihoods. These growing impacts have prompted a paradigm shift toward proactive wildfire management that prioritizes prevention and preparedness instead of response. Despite this shift, many communities remain unprepared for wildfires in the WUI due to diverse individual and social-political factors influencing engagement with proactive management approaches. The catastrophic fire seasons of 2017, 2018, and 2021 in British Columbia (BC), Canada, highlighted just how vulnerable communities continue to be and the urgent need to understand the factors limiting engagement to future resilience to wildfire. Our study, conducted prior to the catastrophic fire season in 2017, surveyed 77 community leaders across BC to better understand the factors driving engagement, including risk perception, preferences and support for approaches, and key barriers limiting progress. We demonstrate that wildfire risk is an urgent issue facing communities across BC, but a range of factors drive variable community engagement with proactive wildfire management. First Nations and smaller (≤5,000 residents) communities were less likely to have developed a community wildfire plan, even though First Nations were significantly more concerned than municipalities/regional districts about certain values (such as drinking water and biodiversity) that were at risk from wildfire. In general, proactive approaches that were considered effective were also the most supported. The most highly supported approaches included enforcement of regulations and education, both of which are considered provincial responsibility in BC and are unlikely to alter community values in the WUI. In contrast, approaches involving prescribed burning of the understory had the highest levels of opposition. Despite variability in these individual factors, social-political barriers related to financial and social (time and expertise) capacity primarily limited engagement with proactive ...
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz
Sarah Dickson-Hoyle
Sarah L. Ravensbergen
Shannon M. Hagerman
Lori D. Daniels
Jemina Coutu
author_facet Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz
Sarah Dickson-Hoyle
Sarah L. Ravensbergen
Shannon M. Hagerman
Lori D. Daniels
Jemina Coutu
author_sort Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz
title Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action
title_short Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action
title_full Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action
title_fullStr Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action
title_full_unstemmed Community Engagement With Proactive Wildfire Management in British Columbia, Canada: Perceptions, Preferences, and Barriers to Action
title_sort community engagement with proactive wildfire management in british columbia, canada: perceptions, preferences, and barriers to action
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate 2022
url https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125
https://doaj.org/article/5da4584a847a4effae4e238b505d2f91
long_lat ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000)
geographic Canada
British Columbia
geographic_facet Canada
British Columbia
genre First Nations
genre_facet First Nations
op_source Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, Vol 5 (2022)
op_relation https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125/full
https://doaj.org/toc/2624-893X
2624-893X
doi:10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125
https://doaj.org/article/5da4584a847a4effae4e238b505d2f91
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.829125
container_title Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
container_volume 5
_version_ 1766002028527484928