Who we are.
Pyrocene Alliance is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation that unites fire practitioners and experts in the sake of finding the solution for the unbalanced and disturbed relationship of humans and fire in our common home - in nature.
We are wildland firefighters; fire ecologists; fire managers, landowner and forest officers who believe that we are witnessing the era of a systemic change in nature, and respectfully a systemic change of the role that fire plays in natural dynamics.
We worked in the peatlands of Indonesia, in Siberian taiga, in German heathlands as well as in South Africa and Portugal. We are networking with colleagues from all around the Globe. We gather knowledge and learn from every place we were in and from every person we worked with.
We have our experience and knowledge, and we acknowledge, that we have our professional biases, but we are eager to learn more, to explore more, to look forward and we try to predict what tomorrow will bring us, what would be the future role and place of fire in Nature.
And more important - we want to find out how humanity can adapt to the new reality, how we will cohabit with fire.
Our Team
Anton "Benny" Beneslavskyi
Anton 'Benny' Beneslavskiy was born in 1977 in Moscow. First education - lawyer, practiced law for 12 years, before switching to environmentalism, specialized on forest and forest fires issues. Was lead campaigner and project lead for Greenpeace Russia's campaigns on wildland fires. Certified as Incident commander (for forest fires), leading trainer for Greenpeace volunteer firefighters, capacity development advisor for climate emergency response for Greenpeace International.
Was a co-author for Wildland Volunteer Firefighter Guide published by Greenpeace Russia and "Aviolesookhrana" (Russian Smokejumpers).
After leaving Greenpeace in 2020 - provided consultancy for fire prevention and suppression in natural reserves in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan. Provided trainings for volunteer wildland firefighters in Indonesia.
Michael Herrmann
Michael Herrmann was born in 1971 in Lüchow (Germany). As a 4 year old boy he wirtnessed the disastrous forest fires in Lower Saxony of 1975 - an experience that has stayed with him since ever then - and that brought him to become a student of fire. Michael studied law and had been working as a lawyer before being appointed as a presiding judge at a criminal court. He has served as a volunteer since the early 1990s in the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and the Volunteer Fire Service as well as for the NGOs "ForestFireWatch" and "Waldbrandteam". He specialized in wildland firefigting and prescribed fire and serves as trainer and advisor for Fire Service, Forest Service as well as burn boss for the Natural Reserve. Michael is (co) author of several articles and a handbook on wildland fire (fighting).
Fire: Why its role in nature is crucial
Fire was an integral part of the natural dynamics of multiple ecosystems long before humans learned how to start the fire. And when humans learned to ignite fire, they brought fires to where it never belonged to, or in scales that nature never had before. Fire was shaping landscapes for some 420-430 millions of years - from the first proven fires in the Late Silurian till now.
As soon as humans learned to ignite fire, they started to use it for shaping the world around them, and we still have slash-and-burn agriculture in many regions. Extinction of megafauna was caused in some cases by the use of fire; while this extinction changed fire dynamics itself by provoking more devastating fires previously prevented by grazing. That is an example of the complexity of human relationships with fires.
But not only the introduction of fires could change the dynamics, suppression did too. “Zero fire” policies and oversuppression led to accumulation of fuels and disastrous fires in the ecosystems that previously experienced rare and low-intense fires.
No matter how we impact the fire regime - by starting fire or by limiting it - we intervene in a fire regime. And once we impact the fire regime of a particular ecosystem - the ecosystem responds and changes accordingly.
Stephen J.Pyne in his book “The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next'' says: the sum of our fire practices is creating a fire age. A human ability to manipulate the fire is a human primary ecological signature according to Stephen J.Pyne.
We can state - climate change, exponential growth of human-managed landscapes, further biodiversity loss and other multiple factors require rethinking of how we interact with nature, with fire, with fire in nature.
Humans won’t stop using the fire - it is a reality. But there is always a better, more responsible and sustainable way. And we want to find it.
Peatlands
Peatlands are particularly vulnerable to fire due to their unique characteristics.
The combination of highly flammable material, susceptibility to drying, and difficulty in extinguishing fires makes peatlands particularly vulnerable to fire outbreaks with severe ecological and environmental consequences.
Heathlands
Heathlands are naturally adapted to fire for several reasons:
Heathland ecosystems have coevolved with fire, and fire plays a crucial role in shaping their structure, function, and biodiversity. Proper fire management practices, such as controlled burns, can help maintain the health and resilience of heathland ecosystems while minimizing the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
Forests
Rethinking, Resuming, Relearning, Adapting, Transforming
Our past experience is a value and a burden at the same time. We got biases as well as we got knowledge. As well as some fire practitioners see prescribed burnings as a “silver bullet” of fire prevention, others demand to “exclude fire”. But we believe that every unique set of conditions requires its own unique solution. And even though for different stakeholders in the same conditions different solutions would be seen as the best ones.
What do we need today to prepare for our fire in the Age of Fire?
We need to ally. We need to overcome differences between locals, firefighters, fire-managers, authorities and environmentalists. We need to acknowledge the importance of a compromise.
We need to look forward. We need to prognos the future fire regimes and act accordingly even if our past experience and biases suggest something else.
We need to learn again as if we know nothing. And then reassess what we knew before.
We will not say “we know how”, we say “we learn and we will share”.
