In the first quarter of 2023, 146 forest fires were registered in Catalonia, almost double the number declared in this same period of time twenty years ago, when 83 were declared, according to Idescat data. In these two decades, the sheep census has been reduced by less than half, going from 1.1 million animals to the current 450,000 cattle, and the forest area has gained 5% more land, to represent 64 % of the territory, due to the abandonment of agricultural land. Coincidence? A group of scientists led by Adrián Regos, a researcher at the Center for Forest Science and Technology of Catalonia (CTFC), does not think so.
After gathering the opinion of more than 100 local actors involved in two biosphere reserves straddling Spain and Portugal (Gerês-Xurés and Meseta Ibérica), the researchers have verified that 92% perceive rural abandonment as the main cause of the large forest fires. "The people surveyed are aware that the problem comes from a lack of management and abandonment, fundamentally, from the loss of traditional livestock activities," explains Regos. These results have been published in an article in the journal Ecology and Society.
In a second work published in the Journal of Environmental Management, the research team concludes that reversing rural abandonment through agriculture and the promotion of fire-resistant forest species is the strategy that provides the greatest socioeconomic benefits and in terms of biodiversity. , while minimizing losses associated with forest fires. Following this logic, the scientists conclude that the role of rural communities in fire prevention should be economically recognized.
“Grass, the sustainable extraction of biomass from forests, agricultural fields that break with the continuity of forest masses or the collection of plants and wild fruits contribute to the prevention of fires. It is necessary to recover these activities and make them profitable by compensating them economically for their ecosystem services in reducing the risk of fire”, says Regos. “Without management, it is a mere matter of time before a large forest fire occurs,” warns the CTFC researcher.
“We know that recovering farmland and pasture gives good results in prevention and prevents fires from spreading. We have to recover these activities by helping them financially”, indicates the professor of Geography Xavier Úbeda, a member of the Grup de Recerca Ambiental Mediterrània (GRAM). “It is an environmental, economic, social issue... that is interesting for it to reach the inhabitants of the cities if they want to enjoy the forests and the mountains”, he adds.
“If we hire companies to mechanically clear the forests, why not pay ranchers to graze? As a country, we must be able to value the ecosystem services produced by extensive livestock farming, especially that which helps prevent fires”, explains Marc Arcarons, rancher and coordinator of the Ramats de Foc project.
The initiative coordinated by Arcarons started in 2017 in the Girona region promoted by the Pau Costa Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention and management of fires and named after one of the firefighters who died in the fire. Horta de Sant Joan fire in 2009. Ramats de Foc helps farmers to graze in forest areas and provides them with a badge with which to market their products with greater added value.
