The 2019 Siberian Wildfires as a Turning Point for Environmental Decision-Making in Russia
This study suggests that although Siberian wildfires of 2019 were extreme, their policy-related drivers were overlooked. Remote sensing analysis (MODIS and VIIRS fire radiative power) confirmed that 2019 wildfires lasted from June to August and were the 2nd strongest in decade in Siberia. Two policy-related factors, which exacerbated the effects of these wildfires were identified. First, the Forest Code (2006) of Russia introduced “control zones” where the authorities had no obligation to fight the wildfires. Notably, control zones today embrace 48% and 11% of forest areas in Russia and worldwide, respectively. More importantly, 60-98% of Siberian wildfires 2019 were blazing in control zones, which created legally-permitted ambiguity with wildfires, thereby, making them fundamentally incontrollable. Second, we identified the tendency to downplay the problem of extreme wildfires by regional authorities in Siberia at the early stage. The policy of downplaying ignited social concerns among Russians (detected by Google trends), which peaked in July 2019, concurrently with the maximum fire load detected by remote sensing. Sociology studies confirmed the existence of these concerns by quantifying wildfire-related petitions (54) to the Federal Government, 77% of which were created at the most active wildfire period (20 July - 20 August). Overall, scientific justification of “control zones” and the system of incentivization for Russian governors for resolving environmental challenges (to decouple their political concerns from environmental dimension) are both required to nullify these fire-promoting factors. This can mitigate warming-related effects from such wildfires in future, given the massive amount of carbon, stored in Siberian ecosystems
Year of publication: |
[2022]
|
---|---|
Authors: | Labzovskii, Lev D. ; Jeong, Sujong ; Kennedy, Eric B. ; Belikov, Dmitry ; Chang, Dongyeong ; Hekman, Erik |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
Subject: | Russland | Russia | Sibirien | Siberia | Feuer | Fire | Umweltpolitik | Environmental policy |
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