Citation

Ascoli D, Plana E, Oggioni SD, Tomao A, Colonico M, Corona P, Giannino F, Moreno M, Xanthopoulos G, Kaoukis K, Athanasiou M, Colaço MC, Rego F, Sequeira AC, Acácio V, Serra M, Barbati A. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 2023; 92: e103715.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103715

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Fuel management for wildfire risk prevention generally lacks economic sustainability. In marginal areas of southern Europe, this limits fuel treatment programs from reaching the critical mass of required treated area to modify landscape flammability, the fire regime and its impacts. This study investigates key fuel management initiatives for wildfire risk prevention in southern EU countries. We compared local approaches through a bottom-up selection of 38 initiatives, which we analyzed systematically through a set of fire-smart criteria: sustainability, cost-benefit ratio, synergies and inter-sectoral cooperation, integration between strategic prevention planning and multiple land governance goals (e.g., rural development, biodiversity conservation, energy supply), innovation and knowledge transfer, and adaptive management. We summarized lessons learned from the most innovative initiatives, by identifying solutions and functional approaches for building sustainable fuel management at the landscape scale, under fire-smart management principles. These make synergistic use of private, public and European resources to activate value chains that valorize the products, by-products and services generated by fuel management activities and their positive externalities on ecosystem services. The multiple mechanisms include fire-marketing, Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes, specific taxes, or environmental compensatory measures. These mechanisms catalyze the interest of multiple stakeholders (economic actors, private owners, land and fire management agencies) improving the cost-efficiency of landscape fuel management. We contend that the EU Green Deal offers the political backing and framework (mainstreaming of EU strategies and funding opportunities) to enable the replication of documented fire-smart models and functional approaches to wildfire risk prevention.

Language: en

Keywords

Bioeconomy; EU Green deal; Fire resistant and resilient landscapes; Fire smart; Fuel management; Wildfire risk prevention