Wildfire management in Mediterranean-type regions: paradigm change needed

PerspectiveDuring the last decades, climate and land use changes led to an increased prevalence ofmegafires in Mediterranean-type climate regions (MCRs).Here, we argue that current wildfire management policies in MCRs are destined to fail.Focused on fire suppression, these policies largely ignore ongoing climate warming and landscape-scale buildup of fuels.The result is a ‘firefighting trap’ that contributes to ongoing fuel accumulation precluding suppression under extreme fire weather, and resulting in more severe and larger fires.We believe that a ‘business as usual’ approach to wildfire in MCRs will not solve the fire problem, and recommend that policy and expenditures be rebalanced between suppression and mitigation of the negative impacts of fire.This requires a paradigm shift: policy effectiveness should not be primarily measured as a function of area burned (as it usually is), but rather as a function of avoided socio-ecological damage and lossinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Landscape - wildfire interactions in southern Europe: implications for landscape management

ReviewEvery year approximately half a million hectares of land are burned by wildfires in southern Europe, causing large ecological and socio-economic impacts. Climate and land use changes in the last decades have increased fire risk and danger. In this paper we review the available scientific knowledge on the relationships between landscape and wildfires in the Mediterranean region, with a focus on its application for defining landscape management guidelines and policies that could be adopted in order to promote landscapes with lower fire hazard. The main findings are that (1) socio-economic drivers have favoured land cover changes contributing to increasing fire hazard in the last decades, (2) large wildfires are becoming more frequent, (3) increased fire frequency is promoting homogeneous landscapes covered by fire-prone shrublands; (4) landscape planning to reduce fuel loads may be successful only if fire weather conditions are not extreme. The challenges to address these problems and the policy and landscape management responses that should be adopted are discussed, along with major knowledge gapsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Compte rendu

* INRA, Centre de Recherches d'Avignon, Unité de Recherches Forestières Méditerranéennes, Avenue Vivaldi, 84000 Avignon Diffusion du document : INRA, Centre de Recherches d'Avignon, Unité de Recherches Forestières Méditerranéennes, Avenue Vivaldi, 84000 AvignonNational audienc

Réseau des équipes de brûlage dirigé

* INRA Centre d'Avignon, Documentation, Domaine St Paul, Site Agroparc, 84914 Avignon cedex 9 Diffusion du document : INRA Centre d'Avignon, Documentation, Domaine St Paul, Site Agroparc, 84914 Avignon cedex 9National audienc

Diagnostic precoce de la survie du pin d'Alep et du pin pignon apres incendie

13 ref. *INRA, URD, Centre d'Orleans Diffusion du document : INRA, URD, Centre d'OrleansNational audienc

Adaptation des forêts au changement climatique : menaces et opportunités

Adaptation des forêts au changement climatique : menaces et opportunités. 2. journée scientifique du projet environnemental CLIMIBI

Pinus halepensis and Pinus pinea survival after wildfire. First results

Document interne *INRA, Station de Sylviculture, Avignon (FRA) Diffusion du document : INRA, Station de Sylviculture, Avignon (FRA)International audienc

Rencontres des équipes de brûlage dirigé, Lac du Salagou (Hérault)

National audienc