Network Townhall: Prevention & Management of Wildfires

Wildfires CC Townhall – 30th August 2023  

In the summer of 2023, dozens of prolific wildfires hit the Mediterranean region, notably in Corfu, Rhodes, mainland Greece, and Sicily. This is a continuing trend from the destructive fires that blazed through Cyprus and the Marmaris region in Turkey in 2022 and 2021.  

With its strong presence in the Mediterranean, Conservation Collective hosted one of its regular discussion and knowledge sharing ‘townhall’ meetings on the topic wildfires, using some of the projects supported across the network as case studies. Read on for a review of the discussions and what we learnt… 

Prevention – Wildfires as a top-priority issue all year round. 

As high temperatures break new records in Europe every summer – a consequence of global warming – and climate change drives droughts that make terrestrial ecosystems increasingly vulnerable to fire, preventative measures that deter and/or contain the flames are critical.  

One recurring problem most of our Mediterranean foundations are addressing is the need for more grazing land and shrubland management. The lack of large herbivores who control the growth of vulnerable biomass – mostly due to habitat loss as agricultural land expands across the region – and the poor diversity of vegetation – in favour of pine and eucalyptus monocultures – should be at the centre of the nature-based solutions proposed to protect habitats against wildfires.  

• In the Serra de Tramuntana, Mallorca Preservation is focussing on reverting the loss of silvicultural farming practices and the native holm oak groves, which are known to be more fire-resistant than the more commonly found Mediterranean stone pine trees.  
• In Greece, the Cyclades Preservation Fund, aware of the strong cultural heritage of drystone walls in the islands and their critical role in stopping fires, soil erosion, and floods, supports local craftsmen in delivering training courses for restoring and managing the walls.  
• In Cyprus, there are plans to help identify high-risk areas by mapping the trends in vegetation and soil moisture change, which often occur after prolonged anthropogenic activities.  

Communications and educational campaigns about this are essential to guide landowners, farmers, the general public and, ultimately, policymakers in the need to work on nature-based solutions during the low-fire-risk months to be prepared for the summertime. 

• In Stromboli, a project initially supported by Sicily Environment Fund to set up a nursery for the native (and highly resilient) Mediterranean caper plant is also succeeding in raising awareness about the need to encourage the maintenance of abandoned and uncultivated land to prevent fires such as the ones that hit the island in 2022.   

Control & Management – providing local communities with the adequate tools to react to wildfires.  

Wildfires will continue to occur despite preventative measures, and when they do, all affected people need to have adequate information, materials, and safety measures in place. Training local communities on how to respond to a fire makes a vital difference 

• The Rewilding  Guide Training project, supported by Sicily Environment Fund, identified the potential of using nature guides for monitoring biodiversity and impact of human activities, with a major focus on fire. In parallel, the same active group of conservationists have allied with other local stakeholders in Palermo to create an informal firefighting brigade and training camps and set up amplified communications channels and surveillance plans. This has proved to be hugely beneficial to citizens, who often feel neglected by their local and regional governments, and to deter potential arsonists.

Restoration – bringing life back after the fires. 

Wildfires have naturally occurred in forests and drylands for millennia; thus, nature is adapted to bounce back on its own. However, the combination of climate change and human action is exacerbating the risk of fire-resistant native species disappearing and being replaced by weaker ones. Artificial plantations, such as those of eucalyptus in the Mediterranean, aggravate this threat, as the oils in their wood are easily combustible, increasing the spreading of fires, and their seeds can quickly sprout again in burnt land, therefore colonising larger territories. 

In cases where native wildlife and vegetation populations are dangerously endangered and affected after a wildfire event, ecological restoration plans are needed to safeguard their survival.  

• After the mega-fires that blazed through Marmaris in 2021, Turquoise Coast Environment Fund supported the assessment and production of an ecological recovery plan to ensure that the local caracal, brown bears, otters, and wild cats could remain and, when viable, be reintroduced, in the few pockets of habitat left available.  

 

There are instances after wildfires where the inadequate clearing of burnt biomass and hurried replantation can cause further disturbance to the productive soil and forest ecosystem. 

• Such was the case in Larnaca, Cyprus, after the devastating wildfires of 2021. To address the issue, Cyprus Environment Foundation funded the training of local stakeholders and volunteers on adequate habitat and agricultural rehabilitation measures. 

Despite the strong Mediterranean angle of this knowledge-sharing session, wildfires are a global issue, as demonstrated by the thousands of hectares burnt in Sri Lanka between 2001 – 2022 and the unusually high fire alert this year in Barbados.  

 

Last but not least, we discussed the challenge of communicating and discussing these issues when they are happening, and how to generate support for projects fighting the fires sensitively. Project managers and fundraisers alike must navigate the extremely fine line between empathy and effective action, which is an incredibly hard task. The directors across our network expressed their gratitude for all our partners who offered their hand during the 2023 wildfires. However, they also agreed that continuous support, big or small, is the most compassionate form of fundraising.  

How to support wildfire action:  

1. Remember: prevention is key!  Always follow the advice of local authorities (and your common sense) and pay extra attention during the high-risk months of summer. 
2. Support our work! Our foundations across the Mediterranean fund grassroots initiatives by local groups in the front lines of wildfires. They rely on partnerships and donations to continue this critical work.
3. Be aware of the sensitivity of the issue when fundraising for and communicating after wildfire events.  

Despite the strong Mediterranean angle of this knowledge-sharing session, wildfires are a global issue, as demonstrated by the thousands of hectares burnt in Sri Lanka between 2001 – 2022 and the unusually high fire alert this year in Barbados.  

By hosting this webinar, we identified the prevention, management and subsequent restoration after wildfires as one of the key areas of action currently concerning Conservation Collective’s global network of local foundations.  

How to support wildfire action:  

1. Remember: prevention is key!  Always follow the advice of local authorities (and your common sense) and pay extra attention during the high-risk months of summer.  

1. Support our work! Our foundations across the Mediterranean fund grassroots initiatives by local groups in the front lines of wildfires. They rely on partnerships and donations to continue this critical work. 

1. Be aware of the sensitivity of the issue when fundraising for and communicating after specific wildfire events.