Forest fire prevention management legal regime between China and the United States

Juan Chen?Xue-Ying Di

Forest fire prevention management legal regime between China and the United States

Juan Chen1?Xue-Ying Di1

Precautions against forest fires,a significant elementin the prevention and reduction of natural disasters in China,are very important to the development of public emergency systems,as well as to the safety of forest resources,ecology,people’s lives and properties.The USA has extensive experience in forest fire management,which has been widely accepted and used by other countries.The precautions taken by China and the USA to prevent forest fires have been compared in a great number of previous studies.However,mostof the studies have focused merely on fire extinguishing technologies and management methods;they have lacked a comparative study on the legal aspects of management.This paper will consider five distinct aspects related to forest fire management between China and the USA and will analyze the similarities and differences as wellas study other features to facilitate work related to precautions against forest fires in China.

Legal system·Forest fire prevention·Forest fire management

Introduction

Fire is a major ecological factor,affecting more land surface than any other natural disturbance(Lavorel et al. 2007;Scott et al.2013).Soils suffer many direct and indirect consequences of fire,which can involve the physical,mineralogical,chemical and biological properties, either temporarily or permanently(Bento-Gonc?alves et al. 2012;Certini2005).Human developmentand public safety are threatened when wildfires burn in proximity to populated communities.Many fires in the United States over the last decade have caused significant residential property loss,most recently the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires proximal to Colorado Springs,CO which resulted in 507 and 346 primary residences destroyed respectively(Haas et al.2013).The forest research undertaken in the USA is the most advanced in the World. In 1886 the US government started federal forest fire management,and after over 100 years of improvement,a very advanced and successful forest fire management system has been formed in the USA.In contrast,China started to develop its own forestfire managementsystem relatively late.However,it has learnt a lot from other countries and has developed a system.There are distinct differences in the forest fire management legal systems between China and the USA,which are mainly due to two reasons.

Firstly there are differentlegalsystems and therefore laws between China and the USA.In the USA there is the Common Law System,while in China is the Civil Law System. Thus,in the different legalsystems,the forestfire management law systems differ.The Civil Law System attaches importance to legislation and the law is derived from statute lawsbutnotjudicialprecedents.However,the Common Law System includes notonly statute laws butjudicialprecedents as well,which play an important role in this system.Legislatively,China tends to make basic laws on forest fire management to coordinate Forest Law,a higher-level law, and hence forms a special legal section of forest fire management.In the USA,the forestfire management legalsystemdoes notappearto be a specific piece oflegislation,butit is in the form of slip laws to regulate one kind of and/or a certain issue along with judicialprecedent.Putsimply,there is neither a nationwide federal forest law nor a forest fire management law.Though the forest fire laws are relatively mature,they occur sporadically in various sections of many laws or interpretations.Some of the forestregulations,such as The ForestReserve Act,the NaturalForestProtection Act and the Reforestation Law,they are notconcerned aboutthe forestfire prevention.Instead,the regulation ofthe forestfire protection is more included in the relevant special enactments.

The US is a federal nation in which each state has autonomous and independent legislation.Therefore,federal legislation and state legislation are sophisticated,and cannot be simply considered as a top-to-bottom system(Li et al.2009).Congress and federal government legislate to regulate the federalestate,and mostacts are not adapted to the specific forests of states and cities or private ones.Each state has the right to pass their own laws,which might contradict federal laws,despite the fact that state laws should be based on them(Xiao 2001).

China,however,is a unitary country,whose forest fire managementsystemisbuilton the base ofa highly integrated model of social management.China’s forest fire management authorities can be divided from top to bottom into different layers,such as country,provinces,cities and counties,etc.At each level of the administration the authorities have their own offices from which to manage their affairs.In addition,there is a specialforce to fightforestfires. Compared with the USA,China’s fire organization and functions have developed into a fire affair administration system with the government leading,a chief officer responsible,cross-region defense and layer-to-layer verified features.Both Forest Law and Forest Fire Regulations state that each regional government is the leading body for fire prevention and forestdepartments have the function of preventing fire.There is a nationalheadquarters thatorganizes, coordinates and guides the nationwide response to fire management.Second,the old version ofthe ForestLaw from 1988 ruled that‘…all leaders of each regional government should be responsible…’Whereas the new Forest Law clarify the duty of the government,ruling that‘…the executive chief leader of each regional government should be responsible forall…,’which shows the officerofthe highest rank in thatregion should be held accountable ifa fire breaks out and is not extinguished.Third,a cross-region defense system has been builtup in China where fire affairs can refer to more than two administrative regions.Localgovernment should activate the system and ensure coordination.Fourth, China also set up a system of layer-to-layer fire prevention. The ForestFire Law states thatthe units and individuals that manage the forestare responsible for fire that occurs on the land,and they are required to sign contacts to guarantee their responsibility for the area.The National Forest Fire Management Headquarters should guide and coordinate the country as a whole to fight against fires,and exercising its right of taking measures againstemergencies.

Comparison of forest fire management legal systems between China and the USA

China

Since the Chinese legalsystemisthatof CivilLaw,and China regulatescertain systems by making universallaws,China has formed a top-to-bottom auxiliary law system that takes the statute law as a core.China thinks highly of forestand forest fire legislation.In 1979,China proposed the ForestLaw and in 1985 itwas enacted,and then itwas greatly amended in 1989. In 2002,the Forest Law Enforcement Regulations were enacted.Both in the Forest Law and Regulations there is a system and rules for forest fire prevention.In addition to these higher-level laws,the State Council enacted the Forest Fire Regulations(Enacted 1988 and amended 2008),which is speciallegislation related to forestfires.

The regulations are the basic law related to forest fire management,and include rules aboutforestfire forecasting, cross-regionaldefense,firefighting,forestfire management, post-incidentvaluation and legalduty.In addition,according to the power of authority and Forest Fire Regulation,each regional government should also make local regulations about forest fires,which are specifically related to the regional parameters For instance,Jiangxi,Sichuan,Guizhou, Yunnan,Fujian,Jilin,Canton,Chongqing and Hunan have enacted these types of regulations.The local regulations along with the Forest Law are the Chinese forest fire managementlegalsystem.In this system,higher levellaws and lower level laws complement and coordinate with each other.Thus,they clearly state the responsible body and nationalchain of command,which offers a legalguarantee for forestfire issues.

USA

In the USA,forest management should be considered separately once the ownership has been verified as federal, state,localgovernmentor private.Congress and the federal government are in charge of federal estate legislation and the federal forest management,while other legislation related to forests in each state should take the federal laws astheir baseline when passing their own laws.This paper will in general only consider the legal aspects of federal forest management.After more than 100 years of development, the USA has formed a forestfire managementlegalsystem. The process of development for the legislation is shown in Table 1 and this demonstrated several facts.

In the past 100 years,the forestfire legislation has been improved gradually.An obvious feature of the USA’s practical forest management is that different laws encourage forest activities,their conservation and development. There are over 100 laws and regulations referring to forestry,which facilitated the development of forest management.

When needed,the government passes various laws based on individual cases,which is different from China’s legislations of forest.In the USA,the governmentis notthe main driver behind the development of forest fire legislation.The legislation of forest fires in the USA originates from public attention and an issue raised by relevant interestgroup,while in China the legislation is developed by the National People Congress and State Council.

The history of the legislation reflects three continual main purposes.The first it is to ensure that firefighting can be performed within a limited budget rather than an unlimited one.The second goalis to recognize the importance of wild fires and to notextinguish them all,to letsome wild fires grow and die(Berry 2007).The third goal is to ensure the clearance of hazardous combustible materialin areas to reduce the loss caused by catastrophic wild fires,which mightendanger residents in the areas,watersheds and other places(Stephens and Ruth 2005).

The acts in the USA relating to forest fire management have changed a lot.Only the Weeks Act is still effective, and most of the others have been gradually abolished,due to the recognition of the ecological importance of forest fires.

Fire prevention

Changing climates are ensuring that managing fires in the world’s forests and woodlands is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing of environmental issues for national and state government(Adams 2013).Although there are various different management models for forest fires in the World,the most basic and important aspect of forest fire management focuses on prevention.The main task of prevention is to eliminate the possibility of fires happening and to reduce the loss caused by them by taking various managementmeasures.When the rules related to forest fire prevention have legal backing itenhances the management of forest fire precautions.This paper will discuss in detail five significant aspects of forest fire prevention and their differences between China and the USA,and they will be fire source management,early warning and monitoring system,prescribed fire,public participation and special team training.

Fire source management

Forest fires can occur from two categories:artificial and natural sources.Human activities are in one way or the other,the main responsible for fire ignition.Humans have used fire historically for different purposes:light,heat, cooking,land clearing,etc.,In spite of the importance of these human aspects,little work has been devoted to this issue,maybe because of the complexity of predicting human behavior,both in space and time(Chuvieco et al. 2010).Approximately 90%of forest fire incidents in both China and the USA are human-caused.Therefore,the main object of source management is the artificial source.The source management in both countries designates high risk areas as fire prevention zones,defines fire prevention periods with high risk and strictly controls some human activities that might cause forest fires,all with the goal of preventing fires thatare caused by artificialsources.In both countries the rules have legal backing and specify the use of fire in the wild,specify the responsibility,and include hash penalties for arson and other illegal fire use.

In the USA the laws are mainly related to the prohibition of artificial sources.For instance,the Public Land Act strictly restricts forest fires through eight aspects.‘Unless permitted in writing by the authorized officer,it is prohibited on the public lands to:(a)Cause a fire,other than a campfire,or the industrial flaring of gas,to be ignited by any source;(b)Fire a tracer or incendiary device;(d)Leave a fire without extinguishing it,except to report it if it has spread beyond control….’(43 CFR 9212.1).Additionally, the USA pays specific attention to campfires,since there are numerous human activities in nationalparks throughout the continent.For the last 10 years,an average of 3500 human-caused wildfires have burned approximately 400,000 acres of National Forest System land annually, with most caused by campfires.Therefore,there are specific rules related to campfires in national parks contained in the National Park Service Act.

As stated previously,in China,90%of forest fire are caused by human activities,and again,the fire source management is mostly related to controlling artificial sources,especially in high-risk periods.Articles 25 through 29 of the Forest Fire Regulations specify aspects of fire use in periods of high risk,signs about fire precaution,checkup points and monitoring.In addition,the National Forest Fire Headquarters and National Forestry Bureau set down an Agreement on Accelerating Fire Source Management, which requires each regional authority to effectivelycontrol artificial fire sources,prevent natural fires and strictly limit forest fire incidents.The agreement also requires each regional authority to set fire source managementgoals according to the local forestsource distribution, forest fire risk zones and forest fire source situation,which are aimed to improve the facilities and signs for forest fire prevention and to enhance the consciousness and personal quality of fire source carriers.Thus,the use of fire by people is strictly control to protect the forest resource, peoples’lives and property.

Table 1 Federal policies and regulations on forest fire

Overall,there are three differences in the fire source management between China and the USA.First,compared with China,the USA pays more attention to the control of campfires.Due to the numerous nationalparks and frequent human activities,such as campfires,in them,great importance was attached to the legislation related to them. Second,the USA allows some wild fires to burn uncontrolled:when a forest fire does not cover more than five acres it will be allowed to burn until it dies naturally. China,however,has a stringent fire-extinguishing policy, which means that when a fire incident occurs,it should be immediately putout.Third,compared with the USA,China has more stringentmanagementof fire sources during highrisk periods.To protect from the man-made fire accident, US fire departmentalways setup the warning signs to warn people to be aware of any activities which can cause fire accident.In China,fire department usually seal off the forest area to prevent from the forest fire.Although it is a pretty effective method in China,it is completely unworkable in USA.Because it will restrict the personal liberty in certain area.This is unthinkable in a country which believe the personal liberty is the most important human rights such as USA.

Forest fire warning and detection system

In the USA,forest fire monitoring is mainly via a combination of aero-patrol and satellite monitoring.Forests are monitored 24-hours a day by pilotless aircraft.There are 146 aircraft specialized to prevent and extinguish fire.The National Forestry Service has an agreement with the air force and private owners of 160 aircraft to patrol for and fight fires.Satellite remote sensing has opened up opportunities for qualitative analyses of forests and other ecosystems at all geographic and spatial scales.It has also been effectively used in the study,monitoring and detection of forest fires(Jaiswal et al.2002).The US satellite‘Earth’orbits approximately 705 km from Earth and it can detect high-temperature,smoky areas and burnt areas after fire incidents.

The USA has cutting edge technology for forest fire monitoring(Cong and Liu 2014).Fire Fighting Advanced System and Technology applies some of most advanced technologies,such as information processing,communication transporting and remote sensing,to the forest fire monitoring and extinguishing system.When a firecommander needs to know information about a fire site, researchers can monitor and detect the site using this kind of technology and offer a preferred solution for fighting the fire.To ensure the application and development of forest fire early warning and monitoring system,the USA made corresponding laws to guarantee financial support and ensure the system ran healthily:i.e.,‘Early warning system: In carrying out the program,the Secretary shall develop a comprehensive early warning system for potential catastrophic environmental threats to forests to increase the likelihood that forest managers will be able to isolate and treat a threat before the threat gets out of control;and prevent epidemics,such as the American chestnut blightin the first half of the twentieth century,that could be environmentally and economically devastating to forests.’’(Morgera and Cirelli 2009).

China has now built a combined system of satellite remote sensing,aircraft patrol,human observation,meteorological analysis and emergency plans,especially the satellite forest fire monitoring system has tremendously improved.The National Satellite Forest Fire Network,a combination of the forestfire early warning and monitoring center of the National Forestry Bureau,southwest forest fire monitoring branch center and northwest forest fire monitoring branch center,plays a significant role in China’s forest fire prevention,and initially it wished to reach the goal of‘Fight early,narrow the scale and extinguish it thoroughly.’In recent years,China has gradually developed management methods and various systems for the forest fire monitoring network using satellites along with the hotspotreportprocedure and an analysis of the amount of hot spots,the distribution and high-risk periods of fire incidents can be determined.National Emergency Plan on severe forest fires states that‘…by satellite forest fire monitoring system,…promptly know the changes of hot spot and work out satellite hot spot monitoring images and monitoring report;by aircraft over the forest to oversee the fire locations time to time,…draw out the map of that; men atlookout observatories and people patrolling close to the possible fire sites should pay a close enough attention to the situation.’This policy resulted in improved monitoring of the fire situation as well as increasing the efficiency.

Despite the planned step by step development of the legal basis for the monitoring,early warning and management of forest fires,the system is still behind thatin the USA in two aspects.First,it lacks financial support from corresponding policies,as well as technological and other kinds support.Second,the forest fire early warning and monitoring system in China has not been developed not fast enough,which means it fails to meet the practical needs of forest fire prevention work.Thus,the State Council and National Forestry Bureau should develop the corresponding policies and regulations to facilitate the forest fire early warning and monitoring system.

Prescribed fire

Prescription burning has been advocated as management tool for restoring forest structure and reducing fuels(Stephens and Moghaddas 2005).Effective application of prescribed fire can improve the developmentand quality of the forest and reduce the risk of fire incidents and sideeffects of having to fight a large blaze for a long time. Prescribed fire also can remove flammable materialfrom in and close to forestareas and communities,can decrease fire risk rank,and reduce the amount of severe forest fire incidents that might occur.From a long-term perspective, prescribed fire can and will guarantee a healthy forest, ensure the security of communities and offer sustainable development of the forest.

As the forest prevention policies in the USA have a tendency to tolerate wild fire,the government legislated and enacted the Healthy Forests Restoration Act to eliminate hazardous inflammable materials on federal lands (Berry 2007).The Act aims to reduce the loss from catastrophic wild fire that might endanger communities, watersheds and other areas;and,to improve the capacity of the Secretary of Agriculture and the Interior to launch projects to decrease hazardous inflammable materials in forests while also strengthening watershed conservation and eliminating catastrophic wild fire and threats to grasslands(Healthy Healthy Forest Restoration Act 2003). However,prescribed burning is difficult to implement in many areas due to concerns regarding aesthetics,air quality,and structuralprotection(Berry and Hesseln 2004). In the eastern United States,prescribed fire is more commonly used in wildland urban interface zones,but conditions make it much more complex and limit the areas where it can be applied(Miller and Wade 2003).

It is unlikely that the varied ecological roles of wildland fire can ever be entirely replaced by mechanical thinning (Schwilk etal.2009).Each year,two to three million acres of National Forest System land has prescribed fires started or mechanical thinning of material,such as grass,brush, trees and‘hazardous fuels,’and this reduces the risks associated with unplanned fires.In 1969 the area for prescribed fires was 16 000 acres,while in 1970 it astonishingly grew to one million acres,which exceeded the total area covered by fire incidents thatyear.Figure 1 shows that the prescribed fire area has generally remained at two million acres for the past 10 years(National Interagency Coordination Center 2013).Prescribed fire can prevent catastrophic forest fires and has become an effective method to be adopted.

Currently,the policy in China is to extinguish all wild fires.While theoretically the need to alter the current fire extinguishing policies is understood it does not mean it would be easy to accomplish as policies would have to develop aboutwhich fires should be leftto burn and which should be managed(He et al.2010).There is great uncertainty related to the fire situation as well as planned fire prevention,regardless of the case of the wild fire.It is necessary to take a decision in a very shorttime when a fire incident happens.Decision-makers understandably tend to completely extinguish allfires to reduce losses.However,it is inevitable that prescribed fire policies will need to be developed for forestfire management.A wild fire ecologist stated to a congressional hearing that‘One of the greatest paradoxes in fire-extinguishing is that the more successfully we did,the more hazardous fuels will accumulate, which could bring us to a higher level of risk when next disaster comes.’(Finney 2001).

China has also realized the significance of prescribed fire.Early in the 1970s,both northern and southern parts of China started to use prescribed fires.The National Forestry Fire Emergency Plan ruled that each regional forest fire prevention division should prepensely burn inflammable materials and set fire prevention isolation zones.Now in Southwestern and Northeastern forests,China has launched a program of experimental prescribed fires and produced technological documents,such as Guide to Use Fire in Northeast and Inner Mongolian Forest,Guide to Use Fire in South Forest and Guide to Use Fire in the Wild of Heilongjiang,aimed to regulate prescribed fire and ensure safety.However,due to three main reasons,the use of prescribed fire in China is merely an expensive distraction.

First,there is no scientific rigor in the technological regulation.Due to the research in flammable materials management starting quite late in China there is a lack of prescribed fire experiments and applications.Under this circumstance,the technological regulations were not developed with scientific rigor and cannot guide the use of prescribed fire to meet the expectations.

Secondly,there is no standardized operation in prescribed fire.Prescribed fire is a process that uses scientific technology and has a complicated operating procedure. Non-standardized operation could easily lead to the isolation zones being putin danger and eventually controlof the fire being lost.Thus,prescribed fire in China is carefully employed in practice.

Thirdly,as the regionalchief has to sign a documentthat they are personally responsible,they are afraid to use a prescribed fire program as they could be prosecuted for dereliction of duty if anything did not go as planned. Although the Fire Prevention Regulations and Emergency Plan rule that each regional forest fire prevention division should purposively burn some areas,the local governments usually prohibit any wild fires including prescribed fire, which makes prescribed fire not popular in China.

In summary,China should accelerate the use of prescribed fire by investing more in research about inflammable material and thoroughly facilitating basic research into inflammable material management,to solve the problem of forest safety,alter the structure of forests and enhance the level of forest health.

Public participation

Participatory and community-based fire management is also important,and it should be approached as an adaptive and sustainable mechanism.With a view to facilitating public involvement in forest fire management,communication with members of local communities and other stakeholders about the positive results of properly applied and managed fire and its ecological,social and economic benefits is critical.A well-informed public will be more likely to use fire carefully and to adhere to policy and legal requirements.The public can assistin prevention,detection and reporting of fires;work with personnel to control unwanted fires;and provide a source of local and traditional knowledge.

The USA attaches great importance to the public participation in forest fire prevention,‘In order to ensure, meaningful public participation’during preparation of hazardous fuel reduction projects,Secretaries must facilitate collaboration among state and local government and Indian tribes and participation of interest persons’’(sec.104(f).National Environmental Policy Act).The public is informed about fire prevention mainly through the use of advertisements.Early in 1902,the National Forests Service started to show people how to prevent forest fires using posters,the image spokespersons were Uncle Sam and later Bambi.Now Smokey Bear has become the most popular forest fire prevention ambassador.The name and image of Smokey Bear are under copyrightprotection by a federalact,amended in 1974,permitting commercialuse as long as fees are paid.The income from generated from this is used in forest fire prevention.For many years,hundreds of programs have been authorized by legislation.The USA has been successful in this due to many public events.

Through the investment in a series of public service commercials,the US government has gained the public’s attention,and hence successfully conveyed crucial information about forest fire prevention to the public.It reminded both adults and children of the importance,and plants the cognition of fire prevention into peoples’minds when they are very little.

Through public events,the attention and help of all social classes,especially donations from media,have been gained.Over one billion dollars’worth of donations havecome from the media in the USA.At the same time,the amount of wild fire incidents has remarkably decreased, from 167,277 annually in the 1930s to 125,984 in the 1950s and in the 1990s this figure fell to 106,306.

Fig.1 Federal prescribe fire and wild-land fire acres

Since the USA’s publicity and education encourages the public to voluntarily participate in forest fire management, many policies related to forestmanagementin the USA are brought about by public organizations,and soon they become legal regulations.The development of forests and research into them has been encouraged by the public and their advice and suggestions.For instance,privately-collected information had an influence on the passing of the National Parks Acts.Until the present,the attention to forest fire prevention from the public still influences the making of policies and rules.

As 90%of forest fire incidents in China were humancaused,accelerating publicity and education could eliminate the majority of potential fire disasters.The publicity and education in China focus mostly on popularizing education and promotions toward people,especially those who live next to forestry areas.The National Forest Fire Emergency Plan rules‘…all forest fire prevention departments should promote and popularize the education of forest fire prevention,from time to time…in order to comprehensively improve the cognition of people.’‘Each and every forest fire prevention headquarters should popularize sense of safety when preventing fire.’Forest Fire Regulations also rule‘Each regional government and relevant department should frequently organize public and educational events to popularize knowledge of forest fire prevention….’.

In China the publicity and education related to forest fires is to do with raising awareness of the rules and laws. Both the Forest Law and Fire Prevention Regulations are the subjects of each regional government’s awareness education,which is mandatory.Thus,the social effects of forest fire publicity and education are very good.For instance,there has been no severe fire disaster in Heilongjiang Province for the last10 years.However,itshould be noted that all the education and publicity is only related to enhancing knowledge of the laws,and this method fails to allow the public to play a role in forest fire prevention development.Only by accelerating the participation of people,strengthening the awareness,organizing regular massive fire extinguishing drills and offering convenient paths for the public to join,could the public be encouraged to play a significant role in forest fire management.

Training of special teams

Wildland firefighters have the primary responsibility to suppress fires in wildland fuels such as forests,grasslands, and brush(such as chaparral).Most wildland firefighters are employed by government land management agencies such as the U.S.Forest Service,the U.S.Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management,and National Park Service,and state agencies such as the Florida Division of Forestry and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection(Reinhardt and Ottmar 2004).According to the US code,the term‘Federal firefighter’refers to an individual furnished by the Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior under an agreement entered into under Sect.1856 of this title.Federal firefighters must be approved and strictly trained.During their work,the fire fighters’priority is their own safety as their lives are considered more important than property or objects.In addition,volunteers are enrolled to undertake firefighting. Although most US firefighting teams are seasonaland some fire fighters are temporarily hired and paid by the hour,all fire fighters must experience a standardized enrollment, training and have special uniforms,equipment and insurance.Newly recruited firefighters mustundergo systematic training before going into that fire zone,and a firefighting leader with a team of 20 should have at least 10 years of firefighting experience(Lei et al.2005).

Additionally,‘The Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior shall annually offer training programs to certify volunteers for suppressing forest fires on National ForestSystem lands,National Park System lands and Bureau of Land Management public lands in the event that the appropriate Secretary determines that such volunteers are needed.’(16U.S.Code 551c).There is also a dedicated firefighting training center within the United Firefighting Center to develop the middle and high ranking firefighters (Harbour et al.2009).

The vast forestry areas,complicated vegetation and sparse roads in forests cause difficulties for forest firefighting in China.The National Forest Fire Emergency Plan rules that‘Each headquarter of forest fire prevention divisions should regularly and purposively organize trainings of firefighting tactics and safety for firefighting commanders,firefighters,workers in forests and the public, strengthen practical trainings and drills and improve the comprehensive quality and ability of firefighting teams.’’‘Meanwhile,…should hold lectures to popularize the expertise of firefighting equipmentthata squad mustapply, ensuring a team with high quality.’The training of the special firefighters and volunteers is vital as this would improve the firefighting efficiency and ensure their safety. Previously,the Fire Prevention Regulations of 1988 once ruled that‘All citizens are compulsory…,’which meant all members of the society had to participate in firefighting affairs.However,the new version of the Fire Prevention Regulations has abolished this chapter,and replaced it by stating the priory of ensuring the safety of firefighters.

The system of firefighting in China is a combination of special teams and volunteers,of which the special teams are the leading body(Hu 2005).In comparison,the majority of firefighters in the USA are volunteers,which is the most obvious difference.This is due to the training in the USA being well developed so there is a body of welltrained volunteers that can replace the special firefighters. When a wild fire breaks out,those volunteers are able to enter the battle,led by experienced commanders.Therefore,China should also train firefighting commanders and leaders while popularizing systematic fire prevention knowledge and skills.In addition,special training facilities and bases should be built in all provinces while a plan for the training and assessment of firefighters and commanders should be formulated.The training of all regional commanders should be to a generalstandard,which is aimed at strengthening the special training,quality and level of the grass-roots forest firefighting commanders.All commanders employed should be fully certified as competent.

Conclusion and discussion

Although the governmentmanagement system is different, China and USA has their own advantage in the forest fire management.As a federalism country,decentralization is the obvious feature of US governmentsystem.Thatmeans, the forest fire policy can be developed,administered and executed by the federal governmentor state government or region department or even local department.And sometimes,the forestfire managementplans from these different departments even have widely variations.The advantage in this political system is that each department can make the specific plan,policy or even regulation to fit their local situation.That means they can find the best way to solve their own problem.Different from US,China is a single unitary country.The mostspecific logo is the centralization managementmodel.This modelestablishes a unified forest fire management system which is controlled by the central government.And different fire department can coordinate or be supplement with each other.The superiority of this system is that the government can make the decision through the most effective way.It can also concentrate the socialresources in a very short time,including allkinds of the manpower,physical and financial resources.This advantage is the US government can not comparative.

The legal systems and legal management of forest fire prevention in China and the USA have their own features. Though there is no special forest law nor special regulations on forest fire prevention in the US,slip laws about forest fire prevention are commonly seen and some regulations are specific and operative.China has a comprehensive legal system with national a Forest Law and Forest Fire Regulations that enable the coordination of regional regulations.In addition,its forest fire prevention regulations were developed ata higher legalleveland have an integrated management system.

There is a legal emphasis on the organization of construction and internal coordination of forest fire prevention in both China and the USA.In the USA,the legal system pays extra attention to the functions of the forestry departments with regards to forest fire management and technology development;whereas in China,the government focuses mainly on responsibility to clarify the duties among the government,forestry departments and proprietors,who ensures the responsibility attached to entitiesand individuals isclear.Remarkably,each regionalgovernmenthaschanged the responsibility of leaders to administrative chiefs,which illustrates Chinese characteristics and enables forest fire prevention to be based on a responsibility system.This change has been positive for the legalmanagementofforest fire prevention in China.

There are also legal and technology differences between the Chinese and the USA’sforestfire prevention management processes.Changes in the US forest fire management concepts and policies have happened to ensure a healthy forest ecology,which was through turning the previous‘extinguish at sight’to‘tolerate wild fire’mode,and this means some wild fires willnotbe extinguished and there willbe artificialburning ofinflammable materials to reduce the likelihood ofa severe fire occurring in the future.The lawsand regulationsin China emphasize a policy of‘Precaution leadsand extinguish foremost’,which is based on the concepts of‘Extinguish at sight’and‘Fight early,narrow the scale and extinguish it thoroughly’.Although ecological means of fire prevention are being experimented with,prescribed fire is not yet commonly used in forest fire management.Instead,all regions adopt the method of extinguishing all forest fires,including wild fires,and maintain a policy of oversight that prevents forestfires atany cost.

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2 January 2015/Accepted:5 February 2015/Published online:28 April2015

?Northeast Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Project funding:This research was supported by the State Bureau of Forestry 948 project(2015-4-35),the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(2572015CA10),and National Natural Science Foundation of China(31400551).

The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com

Corresponding editor:Chai Ruihai

?Xue-Ying Di dixueying@126.com

1Forestry College,Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040,People’s Republic of China