Citation

Goldstein D, Kennedy EB, Goldstein D, Kennedy EB. Int. J. Wildland Fire 2022; 31(10): 911-917.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, International Association of Wildland Fire, Fire Research Institute, Publisher CSIRO Publishing)

DOI

10.1071/WF22020

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Background Virtually every decision within wildland fire management includes substantial ethical dimensions. As pressures increase with ever-growing fires, it is becoming increasingly important to develop tools for assessing and acting on the values intrinsic to wildfire management.Aims This paper aims to foster an applied ethics of wildland fire by bringing values to the forefront of wildland fire management debates, highlighting areas where ethical issues have been previously discussed, and providing a framework to assist in future discussion.

METHODS Through a literature review and collaborative thematic coding of a large set of ethical dilemmas, a list of ethical lenses was developed.Key results Five ethical lenses were generated from the thematic coding process: Epistemologies and Representation, Values and Priorities, Risk and Uncertainty, Power, and Metaethics.

CONCLUSION The five lenses provide a framework to identify prospective ethical tensions in wildland fire decision-making, both within and cutting across categories. This framework provides a way of structuring future investigations into wildfire ethics, as well as a starting point for developing techniques to integrate community and stakeholder values.Implications Developing a field of applied ethics for wildland fire will help support decision-making, create space to more inclusively reflect and deliberate on values, and ensure that fire management best serves the public interest.

Language: en