The social dimensions of forest fire: Community contributions to sustainable, integrated wildfire risk management in Portugal

Forest fires represent significant ecological, social and economic threats to many communities i n Portugal. The constantly increasi n g nature of this risk has h i g h l i g h t e d a need for communities and fire agencies to w o r k collectively to manage shared risk. The move to i n c l u d i n g a c o m m u n i t y or social dimension introduces a significant point of departure i n forest fire risk management planning i n Portugal (Paton & Tedim, 2012). This chapter discusses research conducted to i d e n t i f y the key areas that have to be targeted i n order to facilitate greater c o m m u n i t y i n v o l v e m e n t i n l o c a l w i l d f i r e risk management. The work discussed here is based o n a theory of c o m m u n i t y engagement, full details of w h i c h can be found i n Paton (2008). Key issues are summarised to illustrate the rationale for selecting the i n d i v i d u a l and social predictors i n the theoretical model. The theory proposes that personal beliefs and c o m m u n i t y characteristics interact to influence whether or not people prepare for natural hazard events.