Forgetting fire: Traditional fire knowledge in two chestnut forest ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula and its implications for European fire management policy
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
Authors
Human beings have used fire as an ecosystem management tool for thousands of years. In the context of the scientific and policy debate surrounding potential climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, the importance of the impact of relatively recent state fire-exclusion policies on fire regimes has been debated. To provide empirical evidence to this ongoing debate we examine the impacts of state fire-exclusion policies in the chestnut forest ecosystems of two geographically neighbouring municipalities in central Spain, Casillas and Rozas de Puerto Real. Extending the concept of 'Traditional Ecological Knowledge' to include the use of fire as a management tool as 'Traditional Fire Knowledge' (TFK), we take a mixed-methods and interdisciplinary approach to argue that currently observed differences between the municipalities are useful for considering the characteristics of "pre-industrial anthropogenic fire regimes" and their impact on chestnut forest ecosystems. We do this by examining how responses from interviews and questionnaire surveys of local inhabitants about TFK in the past and present correspond to the current biophysical landscape state and recent fire activity (based on data from dendrochronological analysis, aerial photography and official fire statistics). We then discuss the broader implications of TFK decline for future fire management policies across Europe particularly in light of the published results of the EU sponsored Fire Paradox research project. In locations where TFK-based "pre-industrial anthropogenic fire regimes" still exist, ecosystem management strategies for adaptation and mitigation to climate change could be conceivably implemented at a minimal economic and political cost to the state by local communities that have both the TFK and the adequate social, economic and cultural incentives to use it.
| Originalsprache | Englisch |
|---|---|
| Zeitschrift | Land Use Policy |
| Jahrgang | 47 |
| Seiten (von - bis) | 130-144 |
| Anzahl der Seiten | 15 |
| ISSN | 0264-8377 |
| DOIs | |
| Publikationsstatus | Erschienen - 01.09.2015 |
Bibliographische Notiz
Funding Information:
This research was made possible by an Academic Outreach Engagement Grant from Middlebury College . The following Middlebury College and New York University students volunteered as interviewers during the Fall of 2012 and Spring of 2013 semesters: Kimberly Sable, Kaelin Stone, Charlotte O’Herron, Forrest Carroll, Zuzana Vuova, Peter Elbaum, Jillian Mock, Jessica Davis, Cody Beaudreau, Aidan McGrath, Gabrielle Fromer, Fran Bullard, William Marrs, Rosie Mazzarella, Emily Duh, Shaun Devlin, Martin Kim, Samuel Schwartzbad, Priyanka Jhaveri, Renee Antoine, Phillip Origlio, Michael Cutrone, Louis Bedford, Lindsey Skolnik, Nino Kakauridze, Giovanni Barcenes, Ann Yang and Rachel Rinehart. Francisco Seijo would like to thank the Fundación “Equo” for its help in finding local volunteers for the project and the municipal governments of Rozas de Puerto Real and Casillas – and particularly David Saugar and Daniel Moreno – for their kind and disinterested collaboration in the deployment of the survey questionnaire. FS would also like to express his gratitude to Beatriz Pérez Ramos from the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha and Peter Fule of Northern Arizona University for their helpful comments and contributions to this paper and to Captain Jorge Garcia Rodriguez of the Spanish army for allowing us access to military aerial photographs. Jorge Lozano is being supported by a Prometeo Fellowship from the SENESCYT , a national agency for Education and Science of the Government of Ecuador. James Millington would like to acknowledge the Leverhulme Trust for his Early Career Fellowship (ECF/2010/0378) which funded his fieldwork in the study area. G. Sangüesa-Barreda and J.J. Camarero contributions to this study were supported by projects CGL2011-26654 (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and 1032S/2013 (OAPN, Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Environment). All authors would also like to express their gratitude to the people of Rozas and Casillas for their hospitality and, especially, patience in responding to our questions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
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