“Fire destroys – and creates space for new life”

Interview: Christina Iglhaut

Mr Pronto, did you want to be a fireman when you were a child?

Lindon Pronto: I grew up with fire. My father was a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service in California and the fire station was just a few steps from our trailer. I started working with tools from an early age and learnt a lot from him and his colleagues. The key moment didn’t come until I was 13, however. A neighbour had lit a small fire of the kind typically used in forestry management to burn forest waste. It got out of control, so my father and I went into action – and had already brought it under control by the time the fire department arrived. I thought to myself, now that’s really fun!

So you followed in his footsteps …

Pronto: Yes, exactly. Later I also worked for the U.S. Forest Service, based in California but deployed in eight different states. During this time my role involved conventional forest fire fighting, working from fire trucks and as part of a rapid response crew on board a helicopter, though intensive fire prevention was also part of the job. That was real forestry management: reducing the fire load and removing hazard trees. Ten hours a day – just the chainsaw and me. Taking specific pre-emptive action to cope with fires played an equally important role, however: creating buffer zones and strategic firebreaks to control the spread of wildfires. After all, fire is not only an un­avoidable but also a vital part of many ecosystems.

So just because the forest is burning, it doesn’t mean the fire has to be extinguished?

Pronto: Precisely. There are fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems. The latter cannot even exist without fire – they rely on fire to regenerate. For example, some trees need fire to release their seeds. This is often the case in North America, yet many mistakes in forest management have been made there in recent decades because there was always this desire to put fires out immediately. What I always say is that this leads to a “fire deficit” – and sooner or later the fire will take it all back. In Germany, on the ­other hand, we still do not have any natural fire regime, even though this is slowly changing; what we see here is more of a cultural fire regime, with fire being used for instance in heathland areas for land management purposes.

You now live in Germany – how did you end up here?

Pronto: I studied environmental policy in the US and then came over to Freiburg on a DAAD scholarship to do my master’s. Originally I wanted to move away from fire and engage more broadly with environmental protection and conservation. But then I discovered that Johann Georg Goldammer was teaching at my university – one of the “godfathers of fire management”. He set up the fire ecology working group in the 1980s and was immediately excited to learn that I had so much practical experience – it wasn’t long before I found myself with plane tickets to South Korea and Indonesia in my hand. My degree programme and my mentor gave me access to an international network and I got to know key actors and decision-makers, acquired additional experience …

… and realised that fire and politics are a good fit after all?

Pronto: Yes, fire is an essential part of conservation. If we look at the four elements fire, ­water, earth and air, we can see that clear rules and regulations, international conventions and protocols apply to all of them – apart from fire. This shows the extent to which the whole issue of fire is neglected, and this must change.

What is going wrong in terms of current forestry protection?

Pronto: Many policy measures do not go far enough. Programmes like the EU’s Nature Restoration Law or Natura 2000 are a good start, but they entail risks if they are not implemented in a way that reflects the local circumstances: active fire management is being heavily restricted – firebreaks cannot be created, fires cannot be lit and mechanical steps cannot be ­taken. The result is that nearby residential areas for example now face a fire risk that is up to 19 times higher.

“We need to learn how nature lives with fire so that we can also become more resilient as a society.”

What needs to change?

Pronto: Too often there is a lack of fire expertise at the pol­itical decision-making level. Fire is relevant to ecology, forestry management, climate action,
air quality, culture. Without well-founded knowledge, we end up with one-sided measures that can sometimes have serious consequences. Interdisciplinary and international exchange is the only way we will be able to overcome this complex challenge.

What are the biggest differences in international fire management?

Pronto: I come from a culture in which fire is regarded as bad, as something we have to fight. The situation in the tropics for example is quite different. Fire there is considered vital to survival, and a central tool in land use. Or take South Kivu in the Congo, where I attempted to set up fire management systems in a war zone – a place where there isn’t any water for firefighting, or any protective equipment, or even any shoes in many cases. That makes you realise just how much contexts differ, and how important it is nonetheless to learn from one another. Where has a country had positive ex­periences? Where was something done wrong? What lessons can we learn from that for our work?

Fire doesn’t respect borders – isn’t this precisely why more intensive cross-border exchange and dialogue are also needed in Europe?

Pronto: Yes – if there is a fire in a national park that spans both Germany and the Netherlands, the two countries need to work together. But then you find that the hose couplings used on German fire engines don’t fit the connect­ors on the Dutch engines – to give just one small example. There are also differences in terms of techniques, language and training. That is why I work at the European Forest Institute as a Senior Wildfire Management Expert. One of our goals is to take decision-makers, researchers, industry and the media to where the action is. If they have seen and experienced forest fire management for themselves, they will be able to better understand the relevant ­issues and take more productive decisions, conduct more construct­ive research and acquire a greater awareness of the problems involved. Our international Forest Camp training programme in Poland also teaches foresters about vegetation and forest fire management in Europe. We combine theoretical knowledge with practical experience in simulation games and realistic field exercises involving participants and lecturers from all over the world.

What have you learnt from the forest, and from fire?

Pronto: That life, death and renewal are all part of the same cycle. Fire destroys – but it also creates space for new life. Regeneration begins after just a few days. Animals and insects return. There’s something deeply comforting about that. We live in a “pyrocene” world – our ecosystem is governed by natural and fossil combustion. I believe we need to learn how nature lives with fire so that we can also become more resilient as a society. —

DAAD alumnus Lindon Pronto has an MSc in Environmental Governance from the University of Freiburg. With over 20 years of experience in forest fire management, he has worked in more than 30 countries – including in firefighting operations, research, training and consulting. He was involved in setting up the Regional Fire Management Resource Center Southeast Asia in Indonesia. A former US federal firefighter, he cooperates with authorities, industry, NGOs, international organisations and the EU. He has been Senior Wildfire Management Expert at the European Forest Institute since 2020.

We spent a whole day with Lindon Pronto at the Forest Camp in Poland – watch the video here.