Prescribed fires

Fire is a natural disturbance phenomenon. Despite recognition of the importance of fire in ecosystems, fire suppression policies have been favoured, contributing to the accumulation of fuel inwildlands. Political options coupled with land abandonment, livestock reduction, plantation of monospecific species and the increasing number and length of summer droughts, as a consequence of climate change, are responsible for the occurrence of severe wildfires such as occurred in 2017 in Portugal and California. (...)