Forest fires hotspots in EU Southern Member States and North Africa: a review of causes and motives

Abstract

Despite enhanced fire suppression efforts the number of fires has increased in Europe and in North Africa, above all in Portugal, and the extinction oriented model of fire control is no more suitable to change the trend. Hence, the need of shifting from a reactive model grounded on a fast and strong reaction, to more pro-active procedures supported by prevention, aimed not only to fuel reduction but also to gradually intervene on the causes of fires. In this perspective, a fair knowledge of man-caused fire outbreak motives is a crucial point. This paper intended to compare and interpret those motives in Portugal, Italy and Algeria obtained through the perception of experts (forest experts and other practitioners). In this research new data was collected in the North Region of Portugal and data already available for Algeria and Italy was commented. The results of the research highlighted great similarities of the main fire causes and motives identified by the experts from the case-studies in the three countries. Fire outbreak motives are not related with deliberate fire setting but, mainly, with the use of fire in rural activities. Fire is a manageable tool that is still needed in many agro-forestry systems. One of the findings of this study pointed out the need to design and develop specific prevention programs able to reduce fire incidence and promote practices more respectful of the tradition and needs of rural communities, often criminalized for their habitudes of using fire as a multipurpose tool. Deliberate fire can represent isolated and sporadic actions however, some of them result from organized and even criminal interests. Finally, this paper argues that improved fire prevention to address the roots of fire problems cannot be achieved without a deep knowledge of the complexity and diversity of the fire outbreak motives.