Page 47 - Science

LETTERS

A local resident battles
wildfire in Portugal.

Edited by Jennifer Sills increased risk of economic damage and REFERENCES
loss of human lives, as fires enter villages. 1. S. Gómez-González et al., Environ. Sci. Pol. 81, 104 (2018).
Agricultural policy These agricultural belts can passively 2. “Portugal fires burn 520,000 hectares, nearly 60 percent
of EU total” Reuters (2017); www.reuters.com/article/
protect urban areas and valuable infra- us-portugal-fire-area/portugal-fires-burn-520000-hect-
can reduce wildfires structures, in addition to facilitating both ares-nearly-60-percent-of-eu-total-idUSKBN1CN2F4.
firefighting operations and the suppres- 3. A. Ganteaume et al., Environ. Management 51, 651 Downloaded from
(2013).
Last year, once again, forest fires took sion of fire ignitions. Third, CAP should
4. F. X. Catry, F. C. Rego, F. L. Bação, F. Moreira, Int. J. Wildland
their toll in southern Europe. In Portugal decrease fire ignitions by regulating the Fire 18, 921 (2009).
alone, at least 500,000 ha were burned, burning of crop residues, the use of fire 5. F. Moreira, J. Environ. Management 92, 2389 (2011).
100 people were killed, and 500 houses by shepherds in mountain ranges, and the 6. S. Oliveira, F. Moreira, R. Boca, J. San-Miguel-Ayanz, J.
Pereira, Int. J. Wildland Fire 23, 620 (2013).
were lost (1, 2). As in most Mediterranean use of agricultural machinery during the 7. European Commission, “The future of food and farming:
countries, wildfires raged mainly through dry season. Fourth, CAP should promote Communication from the Commission to the European
abandoned farmland that has turned into adequate forest management in high– Parliament” (European Economic and Social Committee
and the Committee of the Regions, 2017).
forests and shrublands. fire risk areas, including protecting and http://science.sciencemag.org/
8. F. Moreira, P. Vaz, F. Catry, J. Silva, Int. J. Wildland Fire 18,
Agriculture is an important driver of restoring open woodland vegetation (such 563 (2009).
European wildfires. It is a major source of as wood pastures), giving preference to 9. P. M. Fernandes, A. M. G. Barros, A. Pinto, J. A. Santos, J.
Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 121, 2141 (2016).
fire ignitions (3, 4). Additionally, farmland agro-forestry over dense tree plantations,
10. W. M. Jolly et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 7537 (2015).
abandonment and policies promoting restoring the use of understory biomass as 11. R. D. Collins, R. de Neufville, J. Claro, T. Oliveira, A. P.
forestry increase fire hazard, as they lead bio-energy to avoid accumulation of flam- Pacheco, J. Environ. Management 130, 1 (2013).
to vegetation growth and fuel build-up in mable material, and selecting native, less 10.1126/science.aat1359
the landscape (5). However, agriculture fire-prone, tree species in forestry [such
is also part of the solution. Agricultural as native oak species instead of pine or on March 1, 2018
areas, such as crops, orchards, and eucalyptus (5, 8)]. Rethinking wildfires
grasslands, are much less fire-prone, Megafires are mostly driven by weather
particularly if they include irrigated crops conditions (9), and with climate change we and forest watersheds
(5, 6). The European Union’s Common should anticipate an increase in their fre-
Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a powerful quency and impact, especially in southern In December 2017, wildfires burned large
financial instrument that can contribute Europe (10). The current strong investment swaths of southern California, dramati-
to sustainable environmental manage- in fire suppression, in a context of farm- cally ending an already destructive wildfire
ment and climate change adaptation. land abandonment, results in increased season in the United States. The 2017
The vision for CAP, recently proposed by fuel loads and potential for larger future wildfire season burned more than 3.9
the European Commission (7), addresses fires (11). The European agricultural policy million hectares in the United States, the
natural hazards from climate change, should instead balance fire suppression third-most area burned in 1 year since 1960
including fire, but focuses on farmers with nature-based solutions. Multi- (1). The largest of the fires, the Thomas Fire
and their crops. functional, fire-resilient, mosaic landscapes in Ventura County, CA, burned more than
PHOTO: GLOBAL MEDIA GROUP/SIPA USA/NEWSCOM four priorities. First, CAP should foster and damage when burned. 3,4,5 their homes (2).
2
1140 km , including thousands of structures,
can maintain both natural and cultural
The CAP should assume a larger role
in reducing fire hazard by addressing
assets and serve to reduce fire intensity
forcing more than 100,000 residents from
The devastating impacts of the most
the maintenance or reintroduction of
Francisco Moreira * and Guy Pe’er
1,2
recent wildfire season are consistent with
extensive livestock grazing in areas prone
CIBIO/InBIO, University of Porto, 4485-601, Vairão,
1
Portugal. CEABN/InBIO, School of Agronomy,
2
the trends of increasing occurrence of large
to abandonment. Second, CAP should
University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017,
wildfire activity, longer wildfire durations,
promote agricultural use in the wildland-
3
Lisboa, Portugal. German Centre for Integrative
urban interface, mainly around villages
and longer wildfire seasons that have been
Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig,
04103, Leipzig, Germany. University of Leipzig,
4
in remote areas where the historical sur-
evident since the mid-1980s (3). Similar
5
rounding agricultural area has been lost,
Environmental Research, 04318, Leipzig, Germany.
occurred elsewhere in the world, including
resulting in vegetation succession and an
*Corresponding author. Email: fmoreira@cibio.up.pt
2 MARCH 2018 • VOL 359 ISSUE 6379 1001
SCIENCE sciencemag.org 04109, Leipzig, Germany. UFZ–Helmholtz Centre for trends of increasing wildfire activity have
Published by AAAS
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