The NSW Government has commissioned an independent expert inquiry into the 2019-20 bushfire season, seeking advice and input ahead of the next bushfire season.
Dave Owens APM, former Deputy Commissioner of NSW Police, and Professor Mary O’Kane AC, Independent Planning Commission Chair and former NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, are leading the six-month inquiry, which is reviewing the causes of, preparation for and response to the 2019-20 bushfires.
The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute submission to the NSW Bushfire Inquiry outlined four key recommendations, which are summarised below.
Summary of BMWHI Recommendations
We advocate that a cohesive and long-term approach to fire management requires a highly collaborative approach, and that:
1. Fire management agencies should adapt fire management practices aligned to the increased incidence and intensity of fire in an era of climate change, and maximise use of climate data projections in preparing for fire.
2. Authorities and communities should expand and support approaches to whole-of-landscape management that integrate Indigenous knowledge systems, including cultural fire management.
3. Through targeted funding and promotion, authorities should enhance opportunities and resources for communities to make on-going contributions to holistic landscape management programs – in particular via community monitoring programs that link people and place.
4. Through targeted funding and promotion, authorities and community organisations should work to enhance and support opportunities for communicating experiences of fire – to build fire literacy and community resilience in fire preparedness and response. This can be done by the strategic use of media, the communication of individual experiences of recent fire behaviour, and the presentation of new modes of managing risk.
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Submissions close Friday 22 May 2020
MORE ABOUT BMWHI, fire & our SUBMISSION
Read the full BMWHI submission to the Bushfire Inquiry [PDF]
2007 Report on Grose Valley Fire Forum, held at Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens Saturday 17 February 2007 - https://www.bmwhi.org/grose-valley-fire-forum
Chapple, Rosalie. 2007. Bushfire in a heating world – the Grose Valley Fire Forum. NSW Nature Conservation Council annual conference
Yellomundee Firesticks 2015 Participants’ Review of Yellomundee Firesticks - a report for the National Parks & Wildlife Service - https://www.bmwhi.org/yellomundee-firesticks-review
Fire Stories 2: Living with Risk. 2017 Documentary
Header image credit: National Parks Association of NSW