Resumen de Grazing as a fire prevention tool in a mediterranean conservation project within a mosaic-structured forest landscape
A major problem in mediterranean landscapes are forest fires, which face a concerning rise in number and intensity due to lacking forest management activities. This happens because of rural population drifting to cities and leaving their properties and forests abandoned, which leads to a risky fuel load accumulation. Generally, the goal to reduce fire risk is achieved by the disconnection of the vertical and horizontal wood fuel load. An exemplary approach with traditional tools shows the 4-year lasting LIFE-Montserrat project in the province of Barcelona, North-Eastern Spain, which links two Natura 2000 sites. The project area has 2,800 ha within a forested area (64%) of 42,000 ha, with the Montserrat mountain it its middle. Beside the conservation of biodiversity, the main objective is to shift the forest structure to be more fire resistant, done by operational measures and the application of silvopasture with cattle. A forest management planconcerning forest restoration and pastoral management was developed and implemented, to recover the mix of forests and pastures, which have suffered from major forest fires in the recent years. So far in the third project year, forests are at different stages of being converted to less risky, and some areas still lackregeneration. Two problems had been identified so far, specifically the problem of some forest grazing grounds being too much covered by branches, which creates problems to the cattle for moving andfeeding on herbs. Secondly it turned out, that fodder from silvopasture is not sufficient to feed the cattle through the entire year which leads to the need to move the herds to other grazing grounds. Though thereare some issues that make the pastoral work intensive, it is already clear that it is a practicable and efficient way to approach the need for the fuelwood reduction. In comparison to mechanized operations,grazing with livestock has less damages on soils, less emissions and is more convenient. It is obvious, that on an overall level more measures must be implemented to get private forest owners together, to transfer know-how related to reducing fire risk and to make the necessary operations attractive to forest owners, in order to tackle the forest fire issue in Spain.
