Local Resilience. Evaluation towards wildfires risk reductions

Abstract

In recent years, forest fires have experienced an increase in magnitude, frequency and socio-environmental damage globally. In Cuba, they are recognized as one of the main natural hazards affecting the country. In its management, fragmented and atomized management of resilience prevails due to the subdivision into typologies that limit the integration of various dimensions, processes and capacities in the local context. The objective of this study was to evaluate local resilience to forest fires in the Matamoros-Oscar Lucero area, in the municipality of Holguín. The characterization of the risk scenario was carried out, and based on the bibliographic review with the use of factorial and centrality analysis, the dimensions, variables and indicators that allow the assessment of robustness and specific resilience, as components of local resilience and implementation of a community management plan, were identified. A checklist was used to corroborate the increase in resilience in its sociocultural, environmental and governance dimensions, and to a lesser extent in its structural-technological and economic dimensions. From the integration of the results, it is concluded that the proposed indicators are useful and relevant for risk reduction in the face of this hazard.