The “Declaration on the management of large forest fires” is presented in Aínsa. The presentation, which took place at the Eco Museum Visitor Center of the Castle of Aínsa, was attended by representatives of various sectors and entities who discussed the various proposals included in the Declaration. After the reading of the Declaration, a round table was held with the participation of Enrique Pueyo, Mayor of Ainsa; Oscar Diez, President of the Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture; Eva Garcia, Coordinator of the Pyrenean Observatory of Climate Change; Jorge Crespo, partner of the Pau Costa Foundation and participant in the drafting of the Declaration: Domingo Molina, PhD in Forestry Engineering – Professor at the University of Lleida and David Martin, project management area of the Foundation Pau Costa, who moderated the interventions of the participants. The declaration includes a proposal of 15 points that emphasize the need to focus on fire risk management (prevention) over extinction. To this end, it points out the need for society to become involved and co-responsible in fire risk management and to assume that it is inevitable to live with fire, as an element that is part of our ecosystem. Likewise, it is urged to implement sustainable forest management, with biodiversity as a priority, and with the use of prescribed fire, and economic measures that guarantee the development of the rural world. The availability of rigorous data, as well as dissemination and education, are key tools to integrate urban and rural visions of forest fires and to guarantee the existence of a culture of prevention and self-protection. All this in accordance with a legislative framework that integrates the management of forest fires to anticipate, guarantee and finance that prioritizes the preventive management of the territory. “Spain is facing a complex problem that is worsening day by day with climate change. Faced with the problem of large forest fires, it has been demonstrated that simple solutions based on beliefs and myths, with biased discourses that sometimes leave aside science, are no longer useful. As a society we have the responsibility to decide how to deal with a situation that worsens year after year and that, according to all forecasts, tends to get worse”, warns the Pau Costa Foundation.
Origin of the Declaration
The Declaration is the result of the work of more than sixty experts from the forest fire community, coordinated by the Pau Costa Foundation, who worked during 2023 to identify the urgent needs and commitments to be made to address large forest fires. From this work, the conclusions were drawn up that make up the “Declaration on the management of large forest fires in Spain”, which was presented publicly for the first time in Madrid and Barcelona on June 15, 2023. The Declaration is currently in the process of being presented to the different autonomous communities and of collecting as many signatures as possible in order to influence decision-making processes at local, national and international level, resulting in a paradigm shift that promotes prevention, i.e. the implementation of measures that help to manage the risk of large forest fires in an effective manner. So far, there have been more than 900 individual and 105 adhesions from entities such as Greenpeace Spain or WWF Spain; research centers such as the CTFC or the Desertification Research Center (CSIC); professional associations such as the Association of Forestry Engineers or the Association of Geographers; or public bodies such as the Government of the Canary Islands or the DG Forests, of the MITECO, among others.
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