The impact of cultural burning and climate change on landscape fires

Understanding the roles of human land use and climate in shaping past fire regimes is key to predicting future landscape fires and informing effective management decisions. This is especially true for southeast Australia, which has some of the most flammable vegetation on the planet and faces the ongoing impacts of mega wildfires. There is also an ongoing debate on the need for a cultural approach to fire management. Using the Bass Strait Islands as a case study, this talk explores vegetation, fire regimes, Aboriginal land use, and climate change during the Holocene. It provides insights into how the interplay between cultural burning practices and climate influenced fire regimes and shaped the landscape, which has implications for effective future fire management in the region.