Democratizing wildfire strategies. Do you realize what it means? Insights from a participatory process in the Montseny region (Catalonia, Spain)

Abstract

Participatory planning networks made of government agencies, stakeholders, citizens and scientists are receiving attention as a potential pathway to build resilient landscapes in the face of increased wildfire impacts due to suppression policies and land-use and climate changes. A key challenge for these networks lies in incorporating local knowledge and social values about landscape into operational wildfire management strategies. As large wildfires overcome the suppression capacity of the fire departments, such strategies entail difficult decisions about intervention priorities among different regions, values and socioeconomic interests. Therefore there is increasing interest in developing tools that facilitate decision-making during emergencies. In this paper we present a method to democratize wildfire strategies by incorporating social values about landscape in both suppression and prevention planning. We do so by reporting and critically reflecting on the experience from a pilot participatory process conducted in a region of Catalonia (Spain). There, we built a network of researchers, practitioners and citizens across spatial and governance scales. We combined knowledge on expected wildfires, landscape co-valuation by relevant actors, and citizen participation sessions to design a wildfire strategy that minimized the loss of social values. Drawing on insights from political ecology and transformation science, we discuss what the attempt to democratize wildfire strategies entails in terms of power relationships and potential for social-ecological transformation. Based on our experience, we suggest a trade-off between current wildfire risk levels and democratic management in the fire-prone regions of many western countries. In turn, the political negotiation about the landscape effects of wildfire expert knowledge is shown as a potential transformation pathway towards lower risk landscapes that can re-define agency over landscape and foster community re-learning on fire. We conclude that democratizing wildfire strategies ultimately entails co-shaping the landscapes and societies of the future.

Geospatial Modeling of Containment Probability for Escaped Wildfires in a Mediterranean Region

“…The results were presented in a detailed raster layer to inform strategic containment efforts in fires escaping initial attack and attain the potential to grow large under extreme weather conditions. Similarly, the high‐probability‐of‐containment locations mapped here can guide and support ongoing fuel reduction programs oriented at creating defensible locations that might help restrict future wildfire spread (Gonzalez‐Olabarria et al., 2019; Otero et al., 2018). To our knowledge, this is one of few studies developing an empirical and quantitative model of fire containment on a Mediterranean environment (Wei et al., 2019).…”

“…The spatial arrangement of ridges and valley bottoms condition the design of fire contention strategies (Wei et al., 2019). Water divides allow anticipating substantial changes in wildfire behavior, marking those areas as “strategic” in terms of fire control (Otero et al., 2018). For instance, heading fires burning south‐facing slopes often reduce spread rates and intensity after surpassing the water divide as they enter into the north‐facing side, where the fire‐front spreading downhill has a limited preheating effect on burning fuels (Rothermel, 1972).…”

“…The spatial arrangement of ridges and valley bottoms condition the design of fire contention strategies (Wei et al, 2019). Water divides allow anticipating substantial changes in wildfire behavior, marking those areas as "strategic" in terms of fire control (Otero et al, 2018).…”

Has COVID-19 halted winter-spring wildfires in the Mediterranean? Insights for wildfire science under a pandemic context

“…The unpredictable mid-term consequences of COVID-19 on fire regime dynamics add uncertainty on top of an already controversial clash of current and proposed management frameworks, i.e., ‘ fire exclusion ’ versus ‘fire smart ’ ( Doerr and Santín, 2016 ; Otero et al, 2018 ). Many authors recommend reconsidering the ‘business as usual’ approach to wildfires in EUMed countries ( Rodrigues et al, 2020 ), rebalancing suppression and mitigation.…”

Human and Social Dimensions of Wildland Fire Management and Forest Protection

“…Steelman and Kunkel 2004). The relation between individual actors and agencies (networking and trust) and the engagement of communities is also a determinant (Otero et al 2018;Steelman et al 2015).…”