The Mediterranean region, densely populated and characterized by extensive wildland–urban interface areas, is severely affected by wildfires, which are increasingly exhibiting extreme fire behavior. To prevent civil protection emergencies, it is therefore essential to integrate wildfire risk management with the conservation of habitats and their associated ecosystem services.
Life GoProForMED has dedicated a specific action to the identification of silvicultural interventions suitable for reducing wildfire risk and compatible with the conservation objectives of two target habitats of the project, namely:
9260 - Castanea sativa woods 9530* - (Sub-)Mediterranean pine forests with endemic black pines
Watch the video interview with
DAVIDE ASCOLI
University of Turin
Methodology
The work focused on two crucial aspects:
how to enhance synergies between wildfire prevention and biodiversity conservation;how to reduce conflicts when the objectives appear to diverge.
The analysis was carried out at two levels:
landscape scale, to assess the effects of the strategic spatial distribution of interventions;forest stand scale, to evaluate the impact of closer-to-nature silvicultural prescriptions on fire behavior within the target habitats.
Landscape scale
The analysis at this level makes it possible to understand fire ignition, propagation, and interaction with the landscape matrix.
Starting from the territorial wildfire prevention plans, five management scenarios were simulated using FlamMap, a decision support system capable of modeling fire behavior in a given landscape:
- No intervention;
- Planned wildfire prevention interventions as outlined in the plans (Business as usual);
- Planned interventions with optimized spatial distribution (Business as usual optimized);
- Target habitat protection interventions with spatial design aimed at limiting fire spread (Biodiversity);
- Interventions simultaneously achieving wildfire prevention and biodiversity conservation objectives with optimized spatial distribution (Trade-off).
Using a multi-criteria approach, the analysis compared alternative scenarios, identifying the best spatial allocation of interventions achievable with the available resources (treatment of 1% of the total flammable area) to reach the optimal compromise between biodiversity conservation and wildfire risk reduction.
Forest stand scale
The analysis at this level allows evaluating the effectiveness and potential impact of the closer-to-nature silvicultural prescriptions proposed within GoProForMED on reducing wildfire risk for the target habitats.
Specifically, all closer-to-nature prescriptions aimed at conserving and/or enhancing biodiversity in habitats 9260 and 9530* were assessed against wildfire prevention criteria and classified as:
- Positive, when the measures support both biodiversity and flammability reduction;
- Neutral, when they have no significant effect on wildfire risk;
- Negative, when the actions increase vulnerability to wildfires.
The most critical aspects concern interventions that may create continuity between fuel layers and those related to deadwood management.
Preventive silviculture
For negative interactions, mitigation measures were identified and classified into:
Active fire-fighting support infrastructure (green firebreaks, strategic management points);Self-resistance interventions (selective cuts, thinning, patch cuts, prescribed burning, etc.).
In conclusion...
Available resources for wildfire prevention are limited and must be focused on strategic areas, optimizing investments and adopting quantitative, replicable analysis procedures that balance:
- conservation,
- civil protection,
- rural development,
- agro-silvo-pastoral activities.
Since not all wildfires can be stopped, it is also necessary to implement interventions within the areas to increase opportunities for active fire-fighting and enhance the resilience of forest stands.
The main results of this action have been compiled in an outreach publication summarizing the methodology used to assess conflicts between conservation and prevention objectives, maximize the effectiveness of infrastructure, enhance ecosystem resilience, and reduce risks to populations, habitats, and infrastructure.
Further details on the methodology, landscape- and stand-scale analysis procedures, and guidance on mitigation and self-resistance measures are available in the full report entitled:
“Technical Operational Methodological Report for Silvicultural Interventions Suitable for Reducing Fire Risk and Compatible with Conservation Objectives for Two Project Habitats”, the outcome of Task 3.2.
