Preventing the risk of forest fires

Abstract

Mediterranean and mountain forests have been subject to wildfire for millennia. Fire is thus a risk for forests and for people, but it is also a natural disturbance necessary for the maintenance of certain forest ecosystems. Climatic changes associated with changes in landscapes, afforestation, urban development and infrastructures are leading to an increase in the area exposed to forest fires, a lengthening of the fire-prone season and to an increase in major fires or fires with extreme behaviour. Silvicultural and territorial strategies are essential to mitigate the effects of these developments in the long term and in a sustainable manner, and to make forests more resilient and more resistant to fire. This article presents and discusses different strategies for mitigating forest fires and their impacts that have been developed over the last decades in Europe. Adaptive forest management on a territorial scale is the best guarantee to reduce forest fires and their impacts in the long term in the current context of climate and landscape changes.