Joint call from science to prepare the Pyrenees for a possible increase in the risk of megafires

The 46 entities that are part of the Life Pyrenees4Clima project, led by the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC), have made a joint call to all public administrations, the media and Pyrenean citizens to accelerate action against the growing risks that threaten mountain areas. Within the framework of the 43rd Plenary Council of the Pyrenees Working Community (CTP), held in Toulouse, the first technical opinion on natural climate risks in the Pyrenees has been presented, which warns of the increase in megafires, extreme droughts and other adverse hydroclimatic phenomena . CREAF research, through researchers Eduard Pla and Diana Pascual, has decisively contributed to the content of the opinion.

This positioning document makes scientific knowledge, technical experience and 16 specific recommendations available to the territory, the result of many years of cross-border cooperation between Spain, France and Andorra.

After more than 10 years of research and pilot tests in the mountains, the results obtained in research projects such as Life MEDACC , Life MIDMACC and SUDOE MONTCLIMA have served to demonstrate the real benefits of various land management practices and demonstrate their effectiveness in reducing the risk of fire and increasing the resilience of the Pyrenean landscape.

"With collections like this opinion, we see that the lines that we began testing more than 10 years ago are now being considered as a management tool at the landscape scale," explain Pla and Pascual, "some of the recommendations in the opinion are based on proposals co-designed with livestock farmers, managers and technicians in these three projects and have already become priority measures to activate the agro-silvopastoral sector."

Among CREAF's outstanding contributions to the opinion are:

• The need to recover mosaic landscapes to stop the spread of fires. This requires planning on a broad territorial scale, taking advantage of the different pieces of the mosaic that remain and, in some cases, need to be recovered (forests, meadows and crops).
• The importance of reactivating agro-silvo-pastoral activity with a regenerative and adaptive perspective (for example extensive grazing), especially in abandoned areas, to reduce the fuel load.
• The defense that pastures under trees are recognized in the CAP as eligible areas, a key element for the economic viability of agroforestry management and which implies the modification of the CSP (Pasture Subsidy Coefficient).
• Evidence that adaptive and selective forest management reduces the risk of fire while maintaining the natural values of the territory.

The report confirms that the Pyrenees have warmed by 1.9ºC since 1960, a rate 30% higher than the global average . This increase accelerates the probability of macrofires, consecutive heat waves and severe droughts, aggravated by the continuity of the forest that rural abandonment entails. In addition, data collected by the Pyrenean Observatory of Climate Change (OPCC) and the project entities point to increasingly longer risk seasons, with more extreme conditions and a greater accumulation of fuel in the forests. This scenario increases the probability of high-intensity fires and behaviors that have not been common in mountain landscapes until now, such as canopy fires or fast-spreading fires favored by strong winds and dry episodes.

The scientific community warns that sixth-generation fires, convective fires that are very difficult to stop, may become more frequent if the Pyrenean landscape is not structurally transformed.

The opinion includes 16 priority measures, specific and at different scales, to prevent and manage natural climate risks, among which the following stand out:

• Prioritize the mosaic landscape and recover agro-silvo-pastoral activities.
• Develop a Pyrenean Protocol for Forest Emergencies with cross-border interoperability.
• Adapt surveillance and extinction calendars to new risk seasons before and after summer.
• Professionally recognize the work of shepherds, foresters and rural brigades.
• Promote Nature-Based Solutions to recover soils and reduce erosion and runoff .
• Implement official environmental education and technical training programs.
• Consolidate multilevel governance that connects science, territory and citizenship.

According to Pla and Pascual, many of these recommendations are already aligned with the needs and knowledge of Catalan managers and the difficulties are not conceptual, but economic, administrative and planning. With this, the opinion aims to help overcome these barriers with shared criteria and a cross-border vision.

"This opinion is a positive initiative of consensus between the scientific and technical community on both sides of the Pyrenees, despite the political, administrative and management differences between states and regions. There is a common problem that needs to be addressed, because the risk is very relevant in the Pyrenees", they conclude.