Day: August 22, 2025

Experts Advocate for a Shift in Fire Management Strategy

To effectively combat wildfires, experts emphasize the importance of creating diverse landscapes, establishing fire breaks by felling trees, and implementing rural policies that support farmers and shepherds, reports 24brussels.

Crucially, they argue that allowing some fires to burn—provided they do not escalate out of control—should replace the prevailing approach of extinguishing all flames. Vendrell highlighted that “our landscapes, they burn in the past, they are burning in the present, and they must burn in the future.”

Prevention Paradox

However, political discourse often centers on fighting fires once they ignite rather than preventive measures. This week, for instance, conservative-led regions in Spain and the left-wing central government exchanged blame regarding firefighting resources.

Governments tend to allocate more funding toward firefighting equipment than prevention strategies. In Spain, the firefighting budget is double that of prevention spending, despite the fact that preventive measures are significantly cheaper than combatting fires.

Resco de Dios stated, “If we want firefighters to be able to stop a fire, of course, they have to have the means. But … they cannot do their job, even if they have all the resources in the world, because the landscapes that we have do not allow them to work.”

Nevertheless, overcoming the challenges posed by land abandonment will necessitate substantial long-term investments in rural communities, as noted by Pérez Oleaga.