In the summer of 2021, drought and low humidity combined with record-breaking heat of up to 48.8°C (119.8°F) led to fire outbreaks across the Mediterranean countries – including Italy, Greece, Algeria and Turkey – killing more than 100 people and burning more than 620,000 ha of land in July and August.
Mediterranean wildfires
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Learning to fight fire with fire
In the summer of 2021, drought and low humidity combined with record-breaking heat of up to 48.8°C (119.8°F) led to fire outbreaks across the Mediterranean countries – including Italy, Greece, Algeria and Turkey – killing more than 100 people and burning more than 620,000 ha of land in July and August.
Key Numbers
48.8 ̊C
(119.8 ̊F) temperature
620,000 ha
of land burnt
~100
deaths
Although wildfires can be managed preventively, fire management policies in the Mediterranean are based on a model of suppressing fires before they become dangerous. However, evidence shows that this model counter-intuitively promotes extreme wildfire events.
This happens because when a small or medium-sized fire is put out in an area, the unburnt vegetation just keeps accumulating – until there is so much material that the fire burns intensely and quickly, overwhelming the capacity to control it and becoming a “mega-fire.”
In addition to increasing temperatures from climate change, tourism growth and urbanization have pushed people and assets increasingly close to forested areas with high fire risk. Combined with the model of fire suppression, the potential for mega-fire disasters has increased, leading to increased losses of lives and livelihoods.
Fire is a natural part of the Mediterranean ecosystem, and allowing fires to burn in a safe and controlled way can reduce the likelihood of mega-fires burning out of our control.
Reducing the amount of dead vegetation in forests can be done with a variety of techniques, and often should be done in combination. One way is to allow pastoralists into forests and encourage their goats or sheep to graze on the underbrush.
Another very important way to reduce the risk of mega-fires is to let the fire do the work for us. This strategy has been used for centuries by indigenous people in the United States and Australia and is beginning to gain more attention in governmental fire management plans. These plans usually include intentionally setting small, cooler fires that burn broken limbs and underbrush without killing trees. Fire is a natural part of the Mediterranean ecosystem, and allowing fires to burn in a safe and controlled way can reduce the likelihood of mega-fires burning out of our control.
Wider picture
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, the Mediterranean, as well as other places around the world, will have an increase in temperature, droughts and fire weather conditions by the middle of this century. As climate change increases the chances for fire ignition and spread, we must cultivate a healthy relationship with fire before it becomes even more dangerously uncontrollable.
Root Causes
A lack of perception, awareness or preparation in governance relating to risk management and response
Unequal distribution of economic opportunities and limited livelihood options
Pursuit of economic or developmental interests with a lack of consideration for impacts on the environment
Gases released into the atmosphere by human activities contribute to increasing global warming and climate change
Drivers
Landscape change via increasing growth and expansion of cities and neighbourhoods.
A prolonged shortage of water supply, often due to extended periods of insufficient rainfall.
Increasing temperatures in the ocean or atmosphere, for example from climate change
Impacts
Tipping point impacts and disasters can force people to move from their homes due to the loss of shelter, livelihoods or the risk of further incidents occurring. People may be temporarily displaced or urged to migrate to other areas
Disasters cause fatalities both when they occur and in the aftermath with cascading effects on physical and mental health
Public and private structures and systems can be affected by disasters and risk tipping points impacts, from homes and properties to physical assets critical for providing health services, transport, food, water, communications and more
Even those surviving disasters or tipping point impacts when they occur can be at risk of short- and long-term health impacts cascading from pollution, damage of critical infrastructure, livelihood disruption or other consequences of systems being affected
Just like people, nature also feels the impacts of systems tipping and various hazards resulting in threats to health and physical damage to individuals, populations, communities or entire ecosystems
Reduction of people’s ability to support themselves or their family, both temporarily or permanently, is an impact that is interconnected with many others, including health and food security
Solutions
Ecologically-based management: Extreme fires can be reduced by using natural processes as a management tool, either by strategically using fire through prescribed burning or a “let it burn” strategy, as well as using goats and other livestock to clear out builtup vegetation. Such practices not only help build ecosystem resilience and reduce the likelihood of megafires but also provide co-benefits for livelihoods and biodiversity.
Improve inter-agency coordination: Forestry and fire authorities must improve their collaboration and communication in the prevention of and response to fires. Fire response plans will be notably better if these authorities, as well as other local and national entities, exchange wildfirerelated data, share management tools, co-create risk maps and coordinate preventive and management measures.
Multi-stakeholder risk management: Involving the private sector, civil society organizations and local communities in fire management planning and wildfire responses can effectively prevent fire incidences and damage. But to ensure effectiveness, stakeholder engagement at various levels requires strong institutional leadership, political commitment in the long term, trust and willingness.
Fire-safe development: From changing the housing design to diversifying the landscape, communities at the wildland-urban interface can be safer from wildfire risks. For example, creating defensible fuel-free space from 10 m to 30 m around each home or mixing different land uses that provide firebreak areas can prevent fire propagation.
