Incorporating fire-smartness into agricultural policies reduces suppression costs and ecosystem services damages from wildfires.

Autor: Lecina-Diaz J; Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Life Sciences, Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management Group, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany; CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal; BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal. Electronic address: judit.lecina@tum.de., Chas-Amil ML; Department of Quantitative Economics, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain., Aquilué N; Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC), Ctra. St. Llorenç de Morunys km 2, Solsona, 25280, Spain; Centre for Forest Research (CFR), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), C.P. 8888, succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada., Sil Â; CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal; BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal; CITAB - Centro de Investigação e de Tecnologias Agro-Ambientais e Biológicas, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 5001-801, Portugal; CIMO - Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253, Bragança, Portugal., Brotons L; Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC), Ctra. St. Llorenç de Morunys km 2, Solsona, 25280, Spain; CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; CSIC, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain., Regos A; CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal; BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal; Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC), Ctra. St. Llorenç de Morunys km 2, Solsona, 25280, Spain; Departamento de Zooloxía, Xenética e Antropoloxía Física, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain., Touza J; Department of Environment and Geography and York Environmental Sustainability Institute, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5NG, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of environmental management [J Environ Manage] 2023 Jul 01; Vol. 337, pp. 117707. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Mar 28.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117707
Abstrakt: In southern Europe, land abandonment and an unbalanced investment toward fire suppression instead of prevention has gradually increased wildfire risk, which calls for a paradigm change in fire management policies. Here we combined scenario analysis, fire landscape modelling, and economic tools to identify which land-use policies would reduce the expected wildfire-related losses in the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve 'Gerês-Xurés' (Spain-Portugal). To do so, we applied the least-cost-plus-net-value-change approach and estimated net changes in wildfire damages based on their implications for the 2010-2050 period and five ecosystem services: agriculture, pasture, timber, recreation and climate regulation. Four land-use scenarios were considered: (1) Business as Usual (BAU); (2) fire-smart, fostering more fire-resistant (less flammable) and/or fire-resilient landscapes (fire-smart); (3) High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf), wherein the abandonment of extensive agriculture is reversed; and (4) a combination of HNVf and fire-smart. HNVf is the best scenario for suppression cost savings, but it generates the lowest net present value of societal benefits from climate regulation. In fact, the most efficient scenario with the lowest societal discounted net suppression costs and change on ecosystem services damages is the HNVf + fire-smart scenario, as it also generates suppression cost savings from agricultural expansion, and lead to a significant reduction in damages on timber and recreational benefits. Therefore, reverting land abandonment through recultivation and promoting fire-resistant tree species is the most efficient way to reduce wildfire hazard. In this sense, payments for ecosystem services should reward farmers and landowners for their role in wildfire prevention. This study improves the understanding of the financial and societal benefits derived from reducing fire suppression spending and ecosystem services damage by undertaking fire-smart land-use strategies, which can be essential to enhance local stakeholders' support for Payments of Ecosystem Services policies for wildfire prevention.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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