Description du projet
Un examen plus approfondi des déclencheurs politiques des incendies de forêt
Les incendies de forêt sont des phénomènes mondiaux qui façonnent l’environnement et la vie sur Terre depuis des millions d’années. L’augmentation mondiale de leur ampleur et de leur propagation a inauguré ce que les experts appellent une «nouvelle ère du feu». Dans ce cadre, les incendies sont presque exclusivement présentés comme des «catastrophes naturelles» qu’il convient d’atténuer ou d’éliminer. Les incendies de forêt sont pourtant bien plus que cela. Le projet FIREPOL, financé par le CER, étudiera le feu en tant que phénomène politique: il mènera une enquête intercontinentale approfondie sur les déclencheurs politiques des incendies de forêt, en mettant l’accent sur le Sud global. FIREPOL intégrera des données sur la politique de lutte contre les incendies, la télédétection, des études de cas, ainsi que des recherches ethnographiques. L’objectif consiste à examiner l’interaction complexe des facteurs politiques, des institutions, de la dynamique du pouvoir et des luttes sociales qui influencent la répartition des incendies de forêt, les impacts sociétaux et les récits publics.
Objectif
Extreme wildfires have been on the rise across the globe due to climate change and other human actions. Despite the abundant literature on fire ecology and a recognition of the linkages of wildfires to global warming, a patchy understanding of the relationship between fire and anthropogenic actions and their political drivers persists. Social sciences scholarship has mostly focused on fire mitigation and management in the Global North, while complex relationships between societies and fires in the Global South remain broadly unexplored. These two gaps in the academic literature in terms of scope and geography are reflected in a narrow public understanding of wildfires as ‘risks’ and ‘natural disasters’.
FIREPOL goes beyond the state of the art by leading the most rigorous, cross-continental study of the political drivers of wildfires in the Global South. Through a radical multi-methods approach and a comparative perspective, my team and I will combine and analyse newly compiled fire policy and remote sensing data with qualitative case studies and ethnographic research. The aim will be to understand and explain how a range of political factors linked to formal policies and institutions, actor-driven power dynamics, and social contention shape the geographical distribution and social impact of wildfires, and public narratives about them.
FIREPOL is an ambitious, high-risk/high-gain project that will deliver a new framework to understand and explain the connections between politics and wildfires, at a timely moment when wildfires have been identified as crucial socio-ecological challenges within the global climate change agenda. It will develop a new theoretical framework around the concept of ‘wildfire commons’ as a way of engaging the academic community, policy stakeholders and the general public in the co-production of alternative pathways for the sustainable, equitable and politically engaged management of wildfires.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringremote sensing
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesphysical geographynatural disasters
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitution d’accueil
10124 Torino
Italie