ABSTRACT
The Protected Areas in Brazil have been injured by wildfires that treathen the high biodiversity and ecological processes. The Serra da Canastra National Park (SCNP), located at south Minas Gerais State, is characterized by grasslands predominance and an ancient incorrect use of fire as a land management tool, wich cause large wildfires. The objective of this work was to analyse fire ocorrences in SCNP and to give data to reduce large wildfires as a biodiversity conservation question. The data collection was carried out with fire reports from 1987 to 2001 and local visits. The results shown that most of forest fires causes (50%) in SCNP are human originated, in spite of several forest fires caused by lightnings (44%). Among human causes the most is originated by lawbreakers (47%). There is a high number of forest fires caused by lightnings during the rainy season and transition dry-rainy season and a high number of forest fires caused by humans during the dry season. However, the forest fires caused by lightnings are often restricted to small areas (lower than 500 ha) and the forest fires caused by humans reached large areas in SCNP. Furthermore, the control of fire in SCNP should include several prevention activities, mainly environmental education and combustible isolation.
Key words:
wildfires; fire management; protected areas