Wildfires in the Mediterranean region are becoming drastically more intense.
Wildfires in the Mediterranean region are becoming drastically more intense. The recent major fires in France, Spain and Greece show that firefighting efforts are reaching their limits. An international research team led by the Universities of Göttingen and Kassel is therefore calling for a fundamentally new approach to landscape design: in the journal iScience, the researchers demonstrate that wildfire prevention should be conceived and planned in conjunction with nature conservation, agriculture and rural development.
Using ten landscape planning initiatives in the Mediterranean region as a basis, the team investigated how these affected the risk of wildfires. The models ranged from extensive grazing with cattle, sheep and goats (to reduce combustible biomass) through to controlled burning and collaboration between the agricultural and forestry sectors, nature conservation organisations, the scientific community and the fire services. The result: initiatives that combined different forms of land use, actively involved various social groups and continuously refined their measures proved to be particularly successful. The researchers are therefore advocating a shift in wildfire management from a predominantly reactive approach to firefighting towards a long-term, preventive approach to shaping resilient landscapes.
Read More: University of Göttingen
Image: Wildfire prevention through the revival of diverse land uses in northern Extremadura (Spain) (Credit: Fernando J. Pulido)
