The fourth FIRE-ADAPT Study Hub was held in France from 20 January to 1 February 2025. The event, co-organised by Warucene in collaboration with IRD, Sorbonne University and CNRS, brought together project partners from France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom to learn about Integrated Fire Management (IFM) actions being carried out in the Alpes-Maritimes, Occitanie and Pyrenees-Orientales regions.
Throughout the two weeks, the France Study Hub hosted field trips, meetings, and presentations of initiatives with more than 60 local actors, as well as workshops to advance the achievement of project results. All of this was set in different scenarios to have a complete vision of the risks, challenges and landscape management strategies, particularly concerning pastoralism and the use of fire.
The France Study Hub was divided into three stages:
The Alpes-Maritimes region was the first stage (20-26 January). Based on the explanations of shepherds, landscape managers and practicioners, the relationship between grazing and fire prevention, the management of prescribed burns and regulations, the situation and network in France around IFM, as well as landscape management in a protected area such as the Préalpes d’Azur Regional Natural Park, were addressed. The field trip to Coursegoules, where prescribed burns are carried out to improve pasture and control silver broom (Genista cinerea) and false brome (Brachypodium pinnatum), was a way to verify that prescribed burns are mainly used to improve pasture and not so much to reduce understory vegetation.
“We see prescribed burns through the prism of pastoralism. They are an interesting method for the territory to maintain open spaces so that ranchers can have grass for their herds,” commented Marie Goutier, from the CERPAM association, which also tries to raise awareness in society about the need for burning.
Still at Coursegoules, the FIRE-ADAPT protocol described in WP1 was tested to quantify carbon dynamics in prescribed burns by collecting data from three plots under different conditions: before burning, shortly after burning, and during an intermediate time state. The topic of carbon dynamics, together with the topics of biodiversity conservation (WP2) and (inter)cultural services and well-being (WP3) were discussed with different local actors to collect their vision and experience.
Finally, in this first stage, two more field visits were carried out: in St. Bernabé, an area where tourism is cornering agriculture and grazing, and where it’s tough to make the population aware of the need for prescribed burns despite prescribed burns ahve always been carried out; and the 2015 Saint Cézaire wildfire to learn about two different regeneration approaches: planting different tree species in the privately owned area and only cedars in the public area. Both proposals shared economic exploitation objectives.
The second stage in the Occitanie region (27 – 29 January) allowed us to visit a burned area in Carnas to learn about the vegetation data collection methodology that is being used in WP4 to carry out a forensic study of a fire without having any type of record. The visit also served for different local actors to share the landscape management strategy that is being carried out, and the adversities and challenges of local livestock and agriculture (vineyards). A visit was also organised to the experimental site of Puécharon, where the impact of climate change on a typical Mediterranean oak forest is being studied. Rain exclusion experiments, analysis of carbon fluxes in the soil with increasing temperature and monitoring of sap flow, among others, are carried out.
The third stage took place in the Pyrenees-Orientales region (30 January – 1 February). Over three days, the integration of pastoralism in the prevention and organisation systems of prescribed burns was addressed, as well as the impact of burning on biodiversity and the management of pastoralism in the region. As an example of this, the visit to Les Aspres allowed us to observe how the use of fire with prescribed burns, mechanical work and livestock management join forces to prevent the risk of fires. Equally illustrative were the visits to a livestock farm in Baullestavy, as an example of a farm that depends directly on burning to improve pasture, and to a nearby area where the Open2preserve project, led by Jean Paul Métailié, studied the impact and regeneration in different burned plots; and Jujols, to learn from Bernard Lambert, promoter and reference of prescribed burning in the Eastern Pyrenees, and local shepherds, the complicated management of prescribed burning, pastoralism and fire prevention in a protected area.
“In the Eastern Pyrenees, there is a prescribed burn unit run mainly by shepherds. Then there are the firefighters, the main actors, and the civil security military, who carry out prescribed burn operations in the department. Our organisation, CBD66, primarily plays a planning role. We work to support decisions regarding the location of strategic zones, fuel reduction areas, access points and water sources. So, we are more focused on planning. During the summer season, we do not intervene in prescribed burns but in forest monitoring and the initial attack of small fires”, comments Carole Duperron, from the Cellule Brulage Dirigé 66 (CBD66) and the Societé d’Elevage des PO (SEPO).
Finally, the field trip to Montauriol served to observe the regeneration of the landscape affected by the 2024 fire, which burned the same perimeter as the 2005 fire. The visit allowed us to collect magnificent images.
And last but not least, there was also space to work and advance the project. In this sense, progress was presented in different work packages, ongoing activities and upcoming deliverables of the project were analysed, and workshops were held to work on the “Guide on Capacity Building in Integrated Fire Management”, to identify case studies for the project book, and to collect contributions from participants for the study on different experiences and perspectives on Integrated Fire Management.
