Sustainable Land Management, Wildfire Risk and the Role of Grazing in Mediterranean Urban-Rural Interfaces: A Regional Approach from Greece

Abstract

Mediterranean regions are likely to be the most vulnerable areas to wildfires in Europe. In this context, land-use change has promoted land abandonment and the consequent accumulation of biomass (fuel) in (progressively less managed) forests and (non-forest) natural land, causing higher fire density and severity, economic damage, and land degradation. The expansion of Wildland-Urban Interfaces (WUIs) further affects fire density by negatively impacting peri-urban farming and livestock density. Assuming the role of grazing in controlling fuel accumulation in forests and non-forest natural land as an indirect measure of wildfire containment around large Mediterranean cities, our work focuses on the role of nomadic livestock, i.e., sheep and goats—the most abundant and traditional farm species in the area. The present study (i) investigates the relationship between fire frequency/extent and livestock decline at the regional level in Greece, (ii) explores changes over time in regional wildfire regimes, comparing Attica, a particularly vulnerable peri-urban region which includes Athens (the Greek capital city), with the rest of the country, and (iii) quantifies trends over time in livestock characteristics (population structure and dynamics) over a sufficiently long time interval (1961–2017) at the same spatial scale, with the aim to document the progressive reduction of nomadic livestock in peri-urban districts. A comprehensive analysis of statistical data, corroborated with a literature review, outlined the relationship between livestock decline over time and changes in specific wildfire characteristics at the regional scale, evidencing peculiar environmental conditions in Attica. In this region, a rapid decline of nomadic livestock was observed compared to in the rest of Greece, leading to a higher wildfire risk. The results of this study suggest that nomadic livestock contributes to sustainable management of peri-urban land, stimulating grazing that may prevent fuel accumulation in fringe woodlands.

Rural-Urban Migration and its Effect on Land Transfer in Rural China

“…Additionally, in addition to China, many countries in the world (including developed countries such as Europe and the United States) have reported land abandonment or cannot find a suitable successor, one of the most important reasons is population migration [58,59]. In this context, the rational transfer of land can be regarded as a feasible way to prevent land abandonment and ensure food security [1,3,5]. From this point of view, the results of this study can also provide some useful enlightenment for the rational use of land in the world (especially the suppression of land abandonment).…”

“…With the development of urbanization and industrialization, the phenomenon of land abandonment and uninherited land has appeared all over the world [1][2][3][4][5]. This could further threaten food security and hamper the achievement of the sustainable development goals.…”

Application of the Socio-Ecological System Framework to Forest Fire Risk Management: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Many of the studies for which the authors chose a mainly quantitative approach are based on the statistical analysis of the patterns of different types of variables, aiming at linking wildfire events or related environmental dynamics with natural and socio-economic characteristics. Most of the studies with this type of approach are linked to a group of Italian researchers who applied it to the Mediterranean environment [37,[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. Wildfires are a vital natural dynamic of a maquis biome and an emerging issue in other areas of Mediterranean countries, such as alpine regions.…”

Understanding the Relationships between Extensive Livestock Systems, Land-Cover Changes, and CAP Support in Less-Favored Mediterranean Areas

“…Land 2020, 9, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 18 in which land cover is likely to be impacted by the presence of animals depends on the physical characteristics of the animals (i.e., mobility and diet preferences leading to grazing a rather large or small area) and on the livestock management practice (e.g., parking, shepherding). According to the animal behavior and management of the Corsican herds reported in the literature and expert knowledge [20], we drew different buffers around the 1990s and 2012 production sites: small buffers around pig production sites (15 ha), medium-sized buffers around sheep production sites (70 ha), and large buffers around goat and suckler-cow production sites (150 ha). After the first assessment, we did not consider pig production sites, as this livestock type does not really have an effect on vegetation management and is completely different from the breeding characteristics of the other livestock typologies.…”

“…There has been a consequent loss of the traditional landscape that was maintained by goat-and sheep-breeding activities [7,16]. This evolution can increase the fire risk [17][18][19][20][21] and may also have an impact on functional biodiversity [8,18,22,23]. Moreover, the abandonment of agricultural management may also have an impact on the regulation of ecosystem services, such as pollination [24,25] and water cycle regulation [26].…”