The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (or the single entity referenced in Recommendation 4) – with support from all legislated fuel management organisations for public and private land – lead a community engagement process to improve the Victorian community's understanding of:
a) the purpose of Victoria's fuel management program and the concept of residual risk
b) the conditions under which fuel management effectiveness is limited
c) how fuel management is planned, conducted, evaluated and reported.
DELWP and CFA will release updated regional Bushfire Management Strategies by December 2020, with information to help communities understand bushfire risk at a landscape level.
Across 2020 DELWP and CFA worked together to update and release six Bushfire Management Strategies aligned to the Victorian Government regions (refer to Action 3.2 on page 62 of IGEM's progress report). The Bushfire Management Strategies are a key tool used by DELWP to communicate bushfire risk (also refer to Action 7.5 on page 82 of IGEM's 2021 progress report).
The strategies contain bushfire risk information at a landscape level, including areas of higher and lower risk and Bushfire Risk Engagement Areas that identify parts of the landscape where managing bushfire fuels is most effective in reducing risk.