Preventing fires with fires – and pasture, in Spain

In early December, within the hills of Dalías, close to Almeria, a gaggle of thirty firefighters from INFOCA, the firefighting service of the area of Andalusia, had been torching an space of brushwood inside a 40-hectare plot. Trying on had been researchers in addition to firefighters with expertise in managed fires. This was no pyromaniac spree however fairly a well-planned check of ”pyric herbivorism”, a part of a programme carried out by analysis centres in three Spanish areas: Andalusia, Galicia and Navarra.

What is occurring in Dalías is an experimental trial of the COMPAS programme. The consequences of managed fires are being studied right here, an space which has a very dry local weather that’s liable to desertification and wildfires. In local weather phrases, it’s consultant of many different locations within the Mediterranean basin and past.

Using hearth to take away tinder – i.e., dry wild vegetation that has accrued over time – is nothing new. Up to now it was frequent follow to burn vegetation in an effort to cut back the potential for bigger, uncontrolled fires.

Fireplace has all the time been used as a instrument to ”tame” pure landscapes and to fertilise soil. The traditional Romans ”cleaned” forests in a course of they known as lucus, a phrase that has the identical root as ”mild” and ”shine”. In Australia, a rustic that noticed 25 million hectares burn in 2020 – the equal of the Italian peninsula – the Aborigines as soon as used hearth as a way of domesticating the panorama. Their methods are described in a e book by writer Victor Steffensen, who proposes that the strategy be revived.

Till the mid-Twentieth century in southern Europe, the mountainous panorama was a mosaic of conventional farmland combined with forest and villages. Fireplace was broadly used to form the panorama and there was widespread information of this follow. With the agricultural exodus of latest a long time, the stability has shifted. The panorama is turning into extra homogeneous and thus susceptible to massive fires, whereas hearth as a instrument is step by step disappearing from our creativeness and use.

The purpose of initiatives akin to COMPAS is to reintroduce using hearth and grazing in a mixed kind, a way often called ”pyric herbivory”. Justo Porfirio Arroyo, a technician from the hearth service INFOCA and a member of REPCA (Purple de Áreas Pasto-Cortafuegos de Andalucía) and the affiliation Shepherds for the Mediterranean Mountain, is in command of figuring out the areas the place hearth could also be used, and for contacting shepherds there. He explains: ”First an space is recognized the place there may be grazing land and the place there’s a excessive danger of fireplace. Then the burning of a selected space is organised by a specialised group, in order to take away brushwood and low vegetation. After just a few months, grazing is carried out on the plot. This usually means goats and sheep, which favor the brand new shoots that emerge after the hearth. These are extra tender than wild crops which have grown and withered over time.”

Ana Belen Robles is a associate within the COMPAS venture, based mostly on the Zaidín Experimental Station in Granada. ”Though it’s shocking, floral biodiversity will increase after burning and grazing”, she says. ”And now we’re seeing that insect biodiversity additionally improves. Managed fires don’t attain excessive temperatures, so the soil would not get too sizzling, which occurs in bigger fires, and subsequently the soil fertility cycle is quicker. […] The issue right this moment is discovering shepherds. There are only a few left. You will need to realise that intensive grazing doesn’t solely lead to ’meat and milk’ for consumption. It’s rather more. it offers ecosystem providers to the panorama.”

Up to now, it was the shepherds themselves who used hearth to clear the mountains. This follow has been deserted, partly as a result of stricter hearth legal guidelines. Robles explains: ”Right this moment, the quantity of natural gas is far greater than previously. After a long time of neglect, the shepherds not belief themselves to make use of hearth, for concern that it’d get out of hand.”

Because of this, the COMPAS venture envisages schooling in order to create a brand new skilled function, that of the ’gas supervisor’, i.e., folks expert in lowering the buildup of forest mass, the stuff that makes forests dense and impenetrable. This gas is well ignited throughout the driest and most arid months. Mixed with the results of local weather change, the perfect situations are thus created for giant, uncontrollable and damaging fires. ”After understanding which regional legal guidelines at present restrict the follow, we have to promote using these managed fires mixed with intensive grazing,” provides Robles.

In Spain, round 60 p.c of forests are privately owned, and it isn’t all the time simple to persuade the homeowners of this high-fire-risk land that managed fires can perform as a type of prevention. It’s essential to lift consciousness of the truth that hearth could be an ally in adapting to local weather change, fairly than one thing that have to be suppressed in any kind.

Using intensive grazing is a way that has been used for years by authorities akin to INFOCA, however it isn’t the one one. The elimination of brushwood tinder will also be accomplished with heavy equipment or manually by expert labourers. ”However some areas are very tough to entry with machines or lighter instruments, whereas animals akin to goats and sheep can get there with out issues”, says Justo Porfirio Arroyo. ”A mechanical job prices about €900-1000 per hectare, and may go as much as €2,500 if the vegetation is dense. With grazing, upkeep prices a median of €60 per hectare.” The pastoralists subsequently obtain an financial subsidy from INFOCA based mostly on varied components, such because the slope of the land and the kind of vegetation. On this manner, they create ”firebreak” areas with much less accrued gas, and in a way they tame the panorama.

Using managed hearth appears to be an more and more mandatory answer for southern Europe and past, and can be endorsed by the European Setting Company as a type of climate-change mitigation. As a synergy between the abilities of firefighters, forest managers, pastoralists and outdoors specialists, this system could possibly be the important thing to stopping the megafires of the longer term.

L’uso dei pascoli estensivi è una tecnica adottata da anni da autorità come l’INFOCA, ma non è l’unica. La rimozione delle sterpaglie che creano combustibile si può fare anche con macchinari pesanti o manualmente da operatori specializzati. “Ma alcune zone sono molto difficili da accedere con le macchine o strumenti più leggeri, mentre gli animali come capre e pecore arrivano senza problemi.

Un’azione meccanica costa circa 900-1.000 euro per ettaro, e può arrivare fino a 2.500 euro se la vegetazione è fitta. Con l’uso del pascolo, la manutenzione costa in media 60 euro per ettaro”, spiega Justo Porfirio Arroyo. I pastori quindi ricevono una sovvenzione da INFOCA in base a diversi fattori, come la pendenza del terreno e il tipo di vegetazione, e così creano aree “tagliafuoco” con meno combustibile accumulato, ritornando advert addomesticare il paesaggio.

L’utilizzo del fuoco prescritto appare quindi come una soluzione possibile – e necessaria – per l’space mediterranea, al punto che viene ormai sostenuto anche dall’Agenzia europa per l’Ambiente (EEA) come forma di mitigazione ai cambiamenti climatici. Una sinergia tra le competenze di vigili del fuoco, tecnici forestali e pastori, con l’ausilio di centri di ricerca, potrebbe essere la chiave per prevenire i mega incendi del futuro, e ritrovare un’alleanza con il fuoco.

This text was produced throughout the ”FIRE-RES” venture, co-funded by the European Union. The EU is by no means liable for the knowledge or opinions expressed throughout the venture. The accountability for the content material lies solely with Voxeurop. Learn different articles from the FIRE-RES venture on the web site of the European Knowledge Journalism Community.