Estudio sobre los usos tradicionales del fuego en la parroquia Simón Bolívar, Santa Elena, Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract: The objective of this study was to diagnose the traditional uses of fire in agricultural activities in Simón Bolívar parish, Santa Elena, Ecuador. Climograms of the studied area were prepared using meteorological data from NASA (https://power.larc.nasa.gov/), and with remote sensing methods, vegetation cover maps and forest fire severity maps were prepared. The use of fire was determined by applying semi-structured interviews with open and closed questions to 166 rural producers from Simón Bolívar Parish. The questionnaires included questions on general information on the characteristics of the producers and their agricultural activities, the use of fire and its effects. As results, it is observed that the use of fire in the parish is very common, producers use fire to clear their land intended for planting agricultural crops. Therefore, the optimal climate for a fire to occur is warm in the months of September and October. Additionally, based on the remote sensing study, it is shown that high severity fires do not occur in the studied area.