Economic susceptibility of fire-prone landscapes in natural protected areas of the southern Andean Range.

Large fires are the most important disturbances at landscape-level due to their ecological and socioeconomic impacts. This study aimed to develop an approach for the assessment of the socio-economic landscape susceptibility to fire. Our methodology focuses on the integration of economic components of landscape management based on contingent valuation method (CVM) and net-value change (NVC). This former component has been estimated using depreciation rates or changes on the number of arrivals to different natural protected areas after a large fire occurrence. Landscape susceptibility concept has been motivated by the need to assist fire prevention programs and environmental management. There was a remarkable variation in annual economic value attributed to each protected area based on the CVM scenario, ranging from 40,189-46,887$/year ("Tolhuaca National Park") to 241,000-341,953$/year ("Conguillio National Park"). We added landscape susceptibility using depreciation rates or tourist arrival decrease which varied from 2.04% (low fire intensity in "Tolhuaca National Park") to 76.67% (high fire intensity in "Conguillio National Park"). The integration of this approach and future studies about vegetation resilience should seek management strategies to increase economic efficiency in the fire prevention activities.

[1]  F. R. Y. Silva,et al.  Economic losses to Iberian swine production from forest fires , 2011 .

[2]  J. R. Molina,et al.  A system to evaluate fire impacts from simulated fire behavior in Mediterranean areas of Central Chile. , 2017, The Science of the total environment.

[3]  N. Hanley,et al.  Contingent valuation: Environmental polling or preference engine? , 2006 .

[4]  Wendy Y. Chen,et al.  Citizens' distrust of government and their protest responses in a contingent valuation study of urban heritage trees in Guangzhou, China. , 2015, Journal of environmental management.

[5]  Armando González-Cabán,et al.  'SINAMI': a tool for the economic evaluation of forest fire management programs in Mediterranean ecosystems , 2010 .

[6]  J. R. Molina,et al.  Economic vulnerability of timber resources to forest fires. , 2012, Journal of environmental management.

[7]  Claudio Donoso Zegers,et al.  Bosques templados de Chile y Argentina , 1994 .

[8]  Austin Troy,et al.  The Value of New Jersey's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital , 2006 .

[9]  R. Mittermeier,et al.  Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities , 2000, Nature.

[10]  J. R. Molina,et al.  Economic vulnerability of fire-prone landscapes in protected natural areas: application in a Mediterranean Natural Park , 2017, European Journal of Forest Research.

[11]  Achim Röder,et al.  Modelling the effects of landscape fuel treatments on fire growth and behaviour in a Mediterranean landscape (eastern Spain) , 2007 .

[12]  Parvez Ahmed,et al.  Willingness to pay for safe drinking water: A contingent valuation study in Jacksonville, FL. , 2016, Journal of environmental management.

[13]  M. Loureiro,et al.  Aproximacion a las perdidas economicas ocasionadas a corto plazo por los incendios forestales en Galicia en 2006 , 2011 .

[14]  P. Gardner,et al.  Methods for assessing the impact of fire on forest recreation. , 1984 .

[15]  Raphaël D. Chavardès,et al.  Corrigendum to: Altered mixed-severity fire regime has homogenised montane forests of Jasper National Park , 2016, International Journal of Wildland Fire.

[16]  Robert E. Wright,et al.  Valuing the diversity of biodiversity , 2006 .

[17]  Marc D. Abrams,et al.  Fire and the Development of Oak Forests , 1992 .

[18]  M. Finney.  FARSITE : Fire Area Simulator : model development and evaluation , 1998 .

[19]  J. R. Molina,et al.  Integrating economic landscape valuation into Mediterranean territorial planning , 2016 .

[20]  Juan Ramón Molina-Martínez,et al.  A territorial fire vulnerability model for Mediterranean ecosystems in South America , 2013, Ecol. Informatics.

[21]  M. Herrera,et al.  A model for wildfire prevention planning in game resources , 2010 .

[22]  D. Campbell,et al.  A Holistic vs. an Attribute‐based Approach to Agri‐Environmental Policy Valuation: Do Welfare Estimates Differ? , 2011 .

[23]  E. Chuvieco,et al.  Integration of ecological and socio-economic factors to assess global vulnerability to wildfire , 2014 .

[24]  R. L. Hutto,et al.  CHANGES IN BIRD ABUNDANCE AFTER WILDFIRE: IMPORTANCE OF FIRE SEVERITY AND TIME SINCE FIRE , 2005 .

[25]  R. D. Groot,et al.  Function-analysis and valuation as a tool to assess land use conflicts in planning for sustainable, multi-functional landscapes , 2006 .

[26]  J. R. Molina,et al.  Influence of fire regime on forest structure and restoration of a native forest type in the southern Andean Range , 2017 .

[27]  Jason S. Sibold,et al.  Influence of fire severity on stand development of Araucaria araucana-Nothofagus pumilio stands in the Andean cordillera of south-central Chile , 2010 .

[28]  M. Rodrigues,et al.  Methodological approach to assess the socio-economic vulnerability to wildfires in Spain. , 2013 .

[29]  Matthew P. Thompson,et al.  A Risk-Based Approach to Wildland Fire Budgetary Planning , 2013 .

[30]  C. León,et al.  Consumption process and multiple valuation of landscape attributes , 2003 .

[31]  Matthew P. Thompson,et al.  Integrated national-scale assessment of wildfire risk to human and ecological values , 2011 .

[32]  Nick Hanley,et al.  Validation of stated preferences for public goods: a comparison of contingent valuation survey response and voting behaviour , 2004 .

[33]  S. B. Olsen,et al.  Accounting protesting and warm glow bidding in Contingent Valuation surveys considering the management of environmental goods--an empirical case study assessing the value of protecting a Natura 2000 wetland area in Greece. , 2013, Journal of environmental management.