Study of Forest Productivity in the Occurrence of Forest Fires in Galicia (Spain)

Gervasio López-Rodríguez,Manuel F Marey-Pérez,Verónica Rodríguez-Vicente

doi:10.3390/su13158472

Gervasio López-Rodríguez, Manuel F Marey-Pérez + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158472

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jul 29, 2021
Citations: 9	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Santiago de Compostela

Abstract

The occurrence and intensity of forest fires is a phenomenon in which factors of various kinds converge, including climatic, physiographic, socioeconomic and territorial, among others. While the scientific literature has been stating that the causes of fires are related social conflict, other factors must also be considered for a more thorough analysis. In Galicia (northwest Spain), human-caused fires account for up to 95% of the total annual fires, highlighting the importance of examining in detail social and/or economic factors that may influence the occurrence or absence of this type of phenomenon. This paper discusses the influence and weight of forest productivity and the potential economic value of wooded areas on the incidence of forest fires in private mountains of collective ownership (montes vecinales en mano común). Our results indicate that the presence of productive wooded areas of the region determines a lower incidence, both in terms of the number of forest fires and the area affected. It was found that in areas where there was a loss in productivity, the fire rate increased by almost 36%. It is also observed that in MVMCs with productivity gain, the incidence of fires in shrubland areas was 46.26% higher than in wooded areas, while in MVMCs with productivity loss, the occurrence of fires in shrubland areas was 18.95% higher than that observed in wooded areas.

Highlights

Fire is one of the greatest environmental risks for people and their goods [1,2,3,4,5], a risk that, in recent decades, has been growing in size, severity and frequency [6,7]
The results obtained in this study show that MVMCs with fewer forest fires had a percentage of farmland that tripled that observed in MVMCs with the highest incidence of fires, something similar to planting forests or natural woodland; this suggests that the presence of high-value of the wood would act as a fire deterrent
The methodology developed in this work, based on a systematic analysis of information relating to the type of property, land use and productivity of a territory, together with forest fires occurring over a given period of time, allows us to know to a greater extent the distribution and causality of fires in regions of high incendiary activity caused by man

Summary

Introduction

Fire is one of the greatest environmental risks for people and their goods [1,2,3,4,5], a risk that, in recent decades, has been growing in size, severity and frequency [6,7]. Two million fires [8] are recorded worldwide annually, causing significant environmental, economic and social damage [9,10,11,12]. In addition to those aspects that refer to the flammability of forest fuel, such as foliar size and density, content in volatile oils and resins [19,20], plant physiology and ecology [21,22] and the presence of remains of plant material [23,24], the scientific literature shows that there is a certain relationship between forest fires and social conflicts or human pressures [25,26,27,28]. It is important to analyse socioeconomic factors in the study and evaluation of forest fires, whose role is currently more diffuse or unknown [29,30,31,32]

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