On 9 October, the LIFE Maronesa project participated in the ‘Demonstration of the Portuguese Pilot’ workshop in Covilhã organised by the Integrated Information and Technology Platform for Forest Fire Management, SILVANUS.
The project’s scientific coordinator, Carlos Aguiar, presented the topic ‘Mountain grazing in the regulation of biodiversity and resilience to severe forest fires – Case study of the LIFE Maronesa project’.
Based on the evidence of how the landscape of the Serra Alvão, recently affected by the September fires, has evolved, our coordinator highlighted in his presentation the problem of shrub expansion combined with a shorter return period for summer fires in the mountains, which worsens the ecological risk already visible in the mountain landscapes of the north of the country. In the interactions observed by the project of prescribed fire+grazing, he demonstrated the best way to efficiently and effectively manage the territory’s resources and the economic activities based on it – both ecologically and economically – while also reinforcing the fundamental ecological principle that replacing intense disturbance patterns with lower-intensity ones has a positive effect on biodiversity. He concludes the presentation by warning of the risk that exists in a mistaken idea, shared by a large part of civil society, that if we leave these mountain territories (a considerable area of the country) to themselves, the landscape will evolve towards successional stages of ecological balance.
The #SilvanusProject is a European project for the development of an integrated forest fire management platform, which covers three phases: Prevention, Combat and Forest Restoration. In Portugal, the project is being developed by a consortium of partners led by EDP, which also includes Terraprima, IST-ID and AdP.