Journal of Natural Environment

Analysis of proposition and managerial views regarding forest fire in Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Forest, Faculty of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the managerial narratives of managers and officials of the natural resources and environment in relation to the issue of forest fire, in order to identify the management views governing the process of fire management in the country's forests. In this regard, using the qualitative content analysis method, after collecting the published narratives, their classification has been done in the form of sub-themes, main themes and dimensions. Content analysis has been done on 30 news interviews or news-analytical reports published in national newspapers. Based to the results, in the dimension of perception of fire, two main themes are operational description and management description, in the dimension of causes and development of fire, there are six main themes of social challenge, security challenge, support challenge, climatic challenge, topographical challenge and management challenge, in the dimension of actions management for fire control, three main themes of equipment practices, administrative and organizational practices and educational practices  and finally, the requirements needed for fire control, six themes of judicial requirement, financial requirement, equipment requirement, executive management requirement, trans-departmental management requirement and the requirement of participatory management was separated. A total of 91 sub-themes in the form of 17 main themes and 4 dimensions have been extracted from managers' narratives. The analysis of the themes showed that from the point of view of the managers, the fire in the forest is a managerial-operational event that can be prevented and controlled if it occurs by applying management measures and requirements. Therefore, the view of managers on the issue of fire is placed in the framework of managerialism approach. An approach that itself is the basis for the more complicated exposure the fire issue in the country's forests. Ignoring the need to rebuild and revive the fire-damaged areas is one of the key issues that have been severely neglected in the managers' management statements. Managers need a broader view of all the various fields of the incident, fire control and finally the restoration of the damaged areas, so that they are able to make optimal use of the management capacities in the forest fire management process.

Keywords

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Journal of Natural Environment
Volume 76, Issue 1
May 2023
Pages 173-184