Large tracts of fire-ravaged pine forest must be replanted and managed differently to avoid future fires fueled by global warming, French experts said, as wildfires – several of them caused by arson – continue to burn in France and Spain.
Officials in the southwestern Gironde department said on Monday that two huge fires – one in La Teste-de-Buch, which destroyed 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest, and the other in Landiras, which ravaged 13,800 hectares – were under control, despite that it is still burning.
“After 12 days of fierce fighting, both fires have been brought under control,” regional government representative Fabien Buccio said. However, she warned that rising temperatures and winds meant some hotspots would inevitably erupt again.
More than 36,000 people evacuated since the Gironde fires began on July 12 have almost all managed to return home. However, a new fire near Uzès in the southern Gard department has destroyed 40 hectares of land since Sunday, officials said.
A firefighter tries to put out a ground fire in Luchat, in the Gironde region. Photo: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
In Brittany, police on Monday launched a formal investigation after announcing that two fires that have engulfed nearly 2,000 hectares of moorland in the Mont d’Arre region were “certainly” caused by arson, with ignition points 30 meters apart .
Several wildfires – some also apparently started deliberately – meanwhile continue to burn in Spain, which is estimated to have lost almost 200,000 hectares to flames so far this year.
Firefighters on the Canary island of Tenerife are battling a blaze with a 30-mile (27 km) perimeter that has ripped through 2,700 hectares over the past few days, with their task complicated by adverse weather conditions, including very high temperatures.
On Sunday, officers from the Catalan police Mossos d’Esquadra arrested a man suspected of starting three fires. The president of Castile and León, one of the hardest-hit regions, also said the fires there appeared to be deliberately lit.
“I just spoke to the Minister of the Interior and informed him that the human hand is behind the three new fires in Castile and León,” tweeted Alfonso Fernández Manueco on Sunday evening. “I want those responsible to end up in court.
The regional environment minister of Castile and León – where the fires have already claimed the lives of a firefighter and a farmer – sparked an angry backlash on Monday after suggesting that “green fashion” may have contributed to the fires.
Juan Carlos Suarez-Quiñones told Cadena Ser radio that while both the landscape and farming practices have changed, “some new environmental fads, when it comes to clearing riverbanks and other things, make it harder to clear the mountains.” .
Asked if he was saying environmental protection made the fires worse, the minister said: “That is not the reason. But that’s one of the things we have to work on…we’re all responsible for the forests.”
Santiago M. Barajas, a member of the environmental alliance Ecologists in Action, hit back, accusing Suarez-Quinos of seeking to shirk his responsibilities.
Firefighters on the Canary island of Tenerife are battling a blaze with a 30-mile perimeter. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
“You are the one whose responsibility this minister is,” he tweeted. “Blaming environmentalists for your incompetence is truly awful.”
The regional environment minister’s comments echoed those made the previous day by Juan García-Gallardo, a far-right Vox party politician who serves as Castile and Leon’s vice president. García-Gallardo told El Diario de Burgos that “radical environmentalism and green policies have turned the province into a thunder box.”
However, the Spanish government did not agree. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlasca said it was clear that “climate change plays a big role in all these tragedies and emergencies.”
Last week, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was even more blunt, saying: “Climate change kills: it kills people, as we have seen; it is also killing our ecosystem, our biodiversity and it is also destroying the things that we as a society hold dear – our houses, our businesses, our livestock.”
While thoughts turned to replanting, French forestry experts were unanimous in saying that not only the choice of species but also much stricter forest management rules will be crucial to combating future forest fires amid the growing climate crisis.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: “Climate change kills: it kills people, as we have seen; it also kills our ecosystem, our biodiversity and also destroys the things that we as a society hold dear. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron last week promised a “major national project” to rebuild and renew the stricken southwest region, but said it would necessarily have to be “under different rules” dictated by global warming.
Commander Alexandre Joissard of France’s civil protection service said the top priority should be easy access for firefighters. “Every time it makes the task much more difficult for us,” he told Le Parisien newspaper.
“Forests left abandoned, scrub uncleared, difficult to penetrate … this has to change.” Experts note that well-managed forests, such as those in the Landes region of the south, which suffered major fires in 1949, have avoided recent fires.
“There is a saying that in the beginning a fire can be put out with a bucket of water,” said Jean-Yves Collet, head of France’s national forest board ONF. “Forests at risk need well-maintained access trails, lookout towers, fire hydrants.”
One issue that needs to be addressed urgently, Collet said, is that the tens of thousands of small private owners who own 75% of France’s forests are only required to clear undergrowth, brush and dead branches if their area exceeds 15 hectares.
“When you realize that a catastrophic fire can start in half a hectare, you see how vital it will be to encourage a much more collective approach among these smallholders – many of whom don’t even know they own a piece of forest,” he said.
Christophe Bechaux, France’s green transition minister, said the government had planned an intensive campaign targeting private forest owners, noting that logging rules were followed only 30-50% of the time depending on the region.
Chart of forest fires in France
Other measures include public information campaigns, starting as early as primary school, about the greatly increased risks of forest fires, with statistics showing that around 90% are caused – accidentally or deliberately – by humans.
Experts also urged local authorities to counter the high risk of fires in forested and residential areas, at the edge of larger forests. A 2016 study in one southern region found that they accounted for 47% of the department’s fires, but only 15% of its area.
Finally, tree species selection should be paramount when replanting, which is unlikely before a full year has passed. The new trees clearly need to be suitable for the southern climate and also reflect a wider range of biodiversity, experts say.
“Monoculture is not good news,” Hélène Subele of the Biodiversity Research Foundation told Le Parisien. “We also need to think about natural regeneration – those species that grow back will be better adapted to a post-fire landscape.”
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