Resumen de Reducing the risk of fire and increasing the sustainability and economic profitability of the forest sector by way of prescribed burning
I. Skulska, A. J. Salgueiro, C. Loureiro
The current economic crisis, has led to significant cuts in production, employment,income and consumerism. The loss of work amongst immigrant workers forced them toreturn to their regions of origin (rural areas in most cases), where they endure the loss of theirmeans of livelihood and increased poverty. All of this aggravates rural unemployment andunderemployment in many European countries. Scientists predict that the number of unemployedpeople in rural areas will increase the pursuit of additional sources of livelihood, raisingthe pressure on forest areas, leading to their degradation and increasing the frequency of forestfires, owing to an inadequate exploitation of natural resources. According to the Europeanannual fire reports, in the Mediterranean countries (the region with the largest burnt area), theexploration and/or collection of certain Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), such as: huntingand pastoral, mushrooms, asparagus, aromatic herbs, etc., can be identified as the one ofthe causes behind a number of forest fires registered in recent years, due to an irrational useof fire (an integral part of Mediterranean ecosystems) by local populations with the purposeof increasing the production of the abovementioned products and with a view to their subsequentsale. Prescribed Burning (PB) is an instrument that helps to fight this problem and, atthe same time, decrease the risk of fire. It is usually used in California (a region with similar climateand vegetation) and, to a certain extent, in the Mediterranean Basin, by local shepherdsand farmers, to produce forage in pastures, a NTFP. The use of PB is still underdeveloped inEurope, owing to the resistance and/or indifference manifested by politicians and to a lack ofinstitutional support by local communities, despite the existence of several scientific studiesand success cases that support its application to reduce the risk of forest fires and improvethe production of certain NTFP.
