This study characterized the forest fires in the Serra da Canastra National Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The data basis were the records of fire occurrence in 1988-2008 period. The results showed that 219 fires were recorded, burning 415,572.50 ha. In the average, 10.43 fires occurred per year, resulting in 19,789.17 ha burned. Incendiaries caused largest fires regarding the affected area, followed by fires caused by debris burning and lighting, that is first in number of occurrences. Fires caused by incendiaries and the unknown causes were more frequent in August and September. Fires caused by lightings occurred mainly in October and February, and those associated to debris burning were concentrated in the month of July. The largest fires occurred in areas with steep slopes, while the fires smaller than 4.0 ha, occurred in flat or smooth areas. Most of fires that occurred during the study period burned up to 200.000 ha and the larger fires occurred in the park region where the IBAMA (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e do Desenvolvimento Sustentável) already has the ownership or land control. These fires were possibly caused by incendiaries.
Conservation units; fire statistics; management
