Alleged and Actual Economic Effectiveness of Fighting Forest Fires in Siberia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article critically assesses the existing approach for appraising the economic consequences of forest fires. The approach greatly underestimates the risks for and damage done to health and human life. In the summer of 2019, it was used to organize the suppression of Siberia’s forest fires and led to the refusal to extinguish fires over a large area of the so-called control zones. Proceeding from (a) the fact that threats to public health and life are a priority (the main danger is not the fire but the smoke, containing dangerous and toxic substances) and from (b) the WHO (World Health Organization) criteria for the effectiveness of lifesaving measures, the author demonstrates that the cost of extinguishing forest fires is effective from a socioeconomic point of view; however, the cost of containing forest fire hotspots in the accessible areas of the control zones is highly effective. It is established that in terms of importance, forest fires are a national security issue, which requires a comprehensive approach that refutes the thus-far-used purely fiscal means of assessing the cost-effectiveness of measures used to extinguish fires.