Post-Fire Management in the Mediterranean Basin

Abstract

Mediterranean countries have a long-standing afforestation tradition, at least since the 19th century, and especially the mid-20th century. Large forest fires started to occur in the late 1970s, and the routine post-fire restoration approach involved planting pines and building check dams according to the prevailing forest management practices at the time. Increasing short-interval recurrent wildfires have threatened the persistence of pine plantations. In the last two decades, post-fire restoration practices have increasingly diversified in both number of plant species used in plantations and type of restoration actions taken. In an attempt to provide a comprehensive post-fire restoration strategy, we are developing and testing a new protocol that includes scientific knowledge provided by fire and restoration ecology of recent decades. For regional planning, fire-vulnerable forests and shrublands are identified according to vegetation resilience and post-fire erosion risk using a GIS-based approach. Vegetation resilience is assessed on the basis of the fire regeneration strategies of dominant plant species. On a management scale, the need for short-term emergency actions is assessed according to field surveys of fire severity, vegetation resilience, and soil erosion risk. Vulnerable areas meriting emergency actions are those predicted to have a low plant cover regeneration rate and a high erosion risk. Mid- and long-term actions are planned according to the specific management objectives for burned areas, and to the prediction of long-term ecosystem recovery. These actions may include assisted natural regeneration, (re)introduction of tree or shrubby species, and fire-prevention measures.

Keywords:

• afforestation
• erosion risk
• rehabilitation
• resprouters
• restoration
• seeders
• wildfire