Dr. Elliot Convery-Fisher

Constructing mental models of how people think about fire can help us understand and resolve broader conservation conflicts. Read how 👇 #fire #conservation #conflicts

www.rbge.org.uk/news/article...

Catch my talk today at 16:15 in the Ecosystems and Functional Ecology session (Kilsyth) at #BES2025 🙌🌍 Exploring how environment 🌦️ (including fire 🔥) shape grass traits 🌾, with a look ahead to linking traits with biodiversity 🦋 and carbon storage 🌳

Funders: @rgs-ibghe.bsky.social; DEFRA through the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund project ‘Achieving Sustainable Forest Management through Community Protected Areas in Madagascar’; @rbgkew.bsky.social

Thanks to co-authors Adam Devenish, Sam Staddon, Fehizoro Laura Rafanomezantsoa, and @caroaceae.bsky.social , and to all 133 participants who shared their knowledge and time.

Outcome: The approach should be transferable to other natural resource conflicts. The method provides a structured way to identify where divisions lie and points of alignment that can inform more effective, equitable interventions.

Outcome: Future policies must focus on understanding and addressing the socio-economic drivers that motivate people to light fires in the first place.

Key finding: Current conservation efforts are often ineffective because they rely heavily on punitive measures (fines, arrests) to address burning. This approach only treats the symptom, i.e. the fire itself.

Key finding: Fire persists because of unmet socio-economic needs. Weak state institutions, poor services to rural communities, and cattle rustling all drive reliance on fire as a management tool.

Using fuzzy cognitive mapping, we captured and compared perspectives from government officials, conservation practitioners, community leaders, farmers, and herders. FCM allowed us to see which variables different groups prioritise and which causal relationships they perceive.

Questions: What do different stakeholders see as the most important drivers of fire? And where do their causal understandings of fire diverge or align?

Understanding fire conflict through stakeholder mapping in Madagascar's grassy biomes Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. French translation: Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

🚨🔥Hot off the press: Understanding fire conflict through stakeholder mapping in Madagascar
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Paper published in People and Nature! How actors understand fire in Madagascar and what this reveals about how to manage fire