"More resources for forest management", clamored last week a hundred residents in the heart of Collserola. The largest green lung in the Barcelona metropolitan area, a continuous extension of forest of more than 8,000 hectares, could be devoured by flames in a matter of hours. The forest area in Spain, as in other northern Mediterranean countries, has not stopped advancing since the 1960s and especially in recent decades: it has grown by 33% since 1990.
The lack of forest management is the main ally of drought and high temperatures so that all this green mass becomes fuel for fires. Climate change causes both drought and high temperatures to become more frequent and intense. The solution is to attend to these resources, and experts have been warning for years: they are not doing their homework in terms of forest management.
The case of Collserola is paradigmatic: extremely dense vegetation, without interruptions, located in the epicenter of one of the most populated areas in Spain. But the pattern is repeated throughout the Peninsula. The Castellón fire, which devastated almost 5,000 hectares in March, occurred in an area that was 90% a continuum of forest mass.
"It is necessary to recover these activities and make them economically profitable for their services in reducing the risk of fire," explains Juan Camaño, a forest fire operations technician and head of the knowledge exchange area of the Pau Costa Foundation.
Initiatives such as the Rebaños de Fuego seal seek to revalue those livestock activities that contribute to reducing the risk of fire. Keeping forests in good condition not only reduces the risk of fires but is also a contribution to the fight against climate change.
The public administration has a key role in the development of policies that promote economic initiatives that allow forest management. In Barcelona, the Collserola Paisatge Viu neighborhood association insists that the nine municipalities in which the park is distributed have been neglecting their obligations in terms of fire prevention for years.
"The lack of agroforestry management resources in a forest like Collserola, which has steep slopes, can put the lives of 160,000 people who live in mountain neighborhoods at risk," explains Jaume Llansó, president of the association.
The explosive combination between the Mediterranean climate and the mountainous character of the Peninsula causes very powerful fires on slopes. "In this context, having an unmanaged forest territory is outrageous, with or without climate change," says Eduardo Rojas.
