Wildfire prevention in the Mediterranean

Wildfires are a significant threat to the Mediterranean region, causing significant environmental and socio-economic damage. The European Commission accounts for the fact that wildfires contribute to significant damage every year by destroying enormous forest areas, ranging from 700,000 ha to 1 million hectares in the Mediterranean basin. However, humans have been responsible for 90% of forest fires in Mediterranean areas, which have caused devastating havoc that leads to a loss in biodiversity, & habitat damage. While the focus has shifted to addressing human-caused fires, natural events like lightning and severe heat waves (extreme summer temperatures) can also trigger forest fires. Therefore, it is imperative to briefly highlight the major drivers (i.e., abandonment of rural communities, land-use changes, socio-economic variables, etc.) and factors of fire ignition (increments in fuel-load compositions, drier fuels, topography, weather conditions) that lead to increased flammability and the risk of high-intensity wildfires. The photograph on the right demonstrates typical forest fire events in the Mediterranean.??????

Hence, wildfire prevention strategies must be implemented to prevent ground and surface wildfires in various landscapes in the Mediterranean areas. More importantly, this position paper focuses on the ecological perspective of developing and adopting different prevention techniques targeted at reducing the intensity and frequency of fires. Therefore, rather than focusing solely on understanding the fundamental factors contributing to wildfire ignition, creating wildfire-resistant forest landscapes, and building ecosystem resilience to wildfires are critical.

One of the most important wildfire prevention strategies is planting fire-resistant species such as black pine (Pinus nigra) and cork oak (Quercus suber). These fire-resistant trees and forests are essential in Mediterranean-type areas, particularly Spain, to help prevent and reduce the risk of surface wildfires. This is due to the natural adaptation mechanisms of trees, such as their bark thickness and self-pruning ability to withstand and resist surface fires. However, these methods are limited to controlling crown fires. Consequently, effective silvicultural treatments such as pruning and removing climbers will prevent fires from spreading to the crown, allowing forest landscapes prone to wildfires to withstand fire outbreaks.

An ecologically effective approach is a gap-regeneration silvicultural practice that involves gap opening in Mediterranean forest areas to regenerate naturally fire-resistant trees and build mosaic landscapes that aid in spontaneously resisting fire risk and higher resilience following wildfires. For example, Quercus ilex (holm oak) and Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) quickly resprouted following fire events that increasingly occupied Mediterranean landscapes. Therefore, regenerated tree species have developed adaptive mechanisms to withstand the risk and spread of wildfire.

Landscape fragmentation is another important ecological wildfire prevention strategy in the Mediterranean region that involves reducing fuel loads and minimizing the spread of forest fires by opening forest landscapes into smaller patches. However, if such an approach is not adequately planned, it could result in catastrophic events by increasing human access to forest regions, resulting in accidental fires and the risk of desiccation and disturbance. Hence, it is critical to recognize that landscape fragmentation must be carefully planned and implemented to balance the benefits of reduced wildfire risk with potential ecological consequences.

Beyond the ecological wildfire prevention techniques outlined above, other physical approaches to preventing forest fires exist, such as controlled burning and firefighters. One key human-induced strategy to prevent wildfires is controlled/prescribed burning. Prescribed burning is the deliberate and controlled use of fire on a specific geographical landscape in a Mediterranean forest ecosystem prone to wildfires to manage fuel loads within forest landscapes. This helps to limit the intensity and spread of wildfires, thereby preventing wildfires from occurring as frequently as possible. Therefore, it is a critical management tool that must be created and employed by competent experts to limit the spread rate and risk of high-intensity wildfires. In addition, adopting mixed wildfire prevention strategies by combining planting fire-resistant tree species coupled with controlled burning approaches can be very effective. These strategies should be tailored to the unique characteristics of each landscape in the region, including fire regimes, land use types, and human values, to prevent wildfire events in the region. ????????????????????????

To conclude, the climatic conditions and composition of Mediterranean tree species make it difficult or impossible to prevent wildfires in the region. However, it is important to adopt different management plans, prevention strategies, and mixed fire management approaches to mitigate the risk of wildfires and reduce their negative impact. Perhaps most importantly, effective collaboration among different stakeholders is essential for developing and defining proper management plans to help ensure better coexistence between people and fires and reduce the negative impacts of wildfires on the environment and communities.