Study of structural factors and effective motives in causing forest and pasture fires in semi-arid ecosystems of the Zagros mountain

Fire is an integral part of many terrestrial biomes and one of the main causes of destruction in nature. This study investigates the cause and characteristics of wildfires in the middle Zagros ecosystem for two consecutive years. There have been recorded to conduct this research, whole fire events that occurred in the natural areas of Gilan-e Gharb in 2019 and 2020 during the fire season from late May to early December. The gathered data in this study include the region name, type of affected area by the fire (forest, non-wooden rangeland, wooden rangeland, and mixed forest-rangeland), the cause of the fire, date, duration, area, and its location. The results showed that the fire rate includes 11% in the forest, 47.8% in non-wooden pastures, 26.5% in wooden pastures, and 14.7% in mixed forests and pastures in 2019. The fire frequency was 50% in the forest, 38% in non-wooden pastures, 2% in wooden pastures, and 10% in mixed forest and pasture in 2020. The lowest and highest amount of burnt area in 2019 contains the forest (9.4%) and non-wooden pasture (53%), respectively. Furthermore, the lowest and highest portion of burned area in 2020 includes forest (7%) and mixed forest and pasture (42.6%). According to the available evidence, nearly 72% and 50% of the human causes of fire in 2019 and 2020, respectively. There are recreational factors, disputes, and conflicts. Duration of less than one hour for extinguishing fires has the highest frequency, the amount of which is about 36% and 14% in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The highest frequency with 12 and 11 events includes the Cheleh in 2019 and 2020, respectively, among the common burned areas. In addition, among the factors compared in the study years, human factors of fire under the influence of different conditions have significant differences from each other (p=0.05). Therefore, it is essential to consider the structural causes and motivations of fire-causing factors that affect fire to reduce and avoid fire as much as possible.