For residents in Central Portugal, the threat of wildfires looms large each summer. RESIST project partners are working with locals to build their resilience to climate hazards through community engagement, innovative forest management practices, and technology.  

The EU-funded Horizon project’s areas of focus in Central Portugal can be found in the regions of Coimbra and Medio Tejo, with research also being carried out at the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP), located in Alentejo.  

Left unchecked, the dense pine cultivations in this region of Portugal can turn into tinderboxes with very little discontinuity between trees, which makes it easier for flames to spread rapidly. This situation is exacerbated by land abandonment and the general decline of rural jobs like agriculture, which once managed forest growth.  

The RESIST Project is testing innovative wildfire solutions in towns and villages around Central Portugal region like Mestras, Goís, Mortágua, and Painçal. One such solution is the implementation of Integrated Areas of Landscape Management (AIGP), a participatory strategy to manage parcels of land larger than 100 hectares. It involves transforming landscapes, encouraging native species, reviving economic activity like agroforestry in forest areas all the while engaging with local citizens and boosting resilience through workshops and training. It’s about good governance and inclusivity.   

Another solution involves the creation of 100-meter buffer zones around towns and villages. Forest encroachment on villages heightens the risk of loss of life and damage to property in the event of wildfires — which occur each year across the Iberian Peninsula, sometimes naturally but other times due to arson or accidents. This can be done by thinning out flammable vegetation and encouraging native species to flourish. 

A third solution being implemented in Central Portugal revolves around innovative valorisation of biomass that is removed from the forests. 

Productive firebreaks 

RESIST project partners have worked with residents of Mestras to create a 100-meter buffer zone around the hamlet that, in the case of a wildfire, should keep the flames at bay. 

“People feel safer in this territory. And that is the expression we hear most often in each of them,” said Luís Filipe Rodrigues, vice-president of the municipal chamber of Mortágua. “Generally speaking, people are receptive to this idea and understand the problems of fires and how they can be affected.” 

The firebreaks not only boost the resilience of the villages, but they offer an opportunity to turn unmanaged, swathes of forest into sustainable landscapes with boosted biodiversity, native species, and broadleaf vegetation that is less flammable, while also providing economic opportunities for local communities. 

This doesn’t necessarily have to be carried out by human workers. As part of the RESIST project’s activities in Portugal, robots are stepping up to the challenge of reducing fire-prone forest areas.  

Finding economic opportunities 

A key incentive to adopting the solutions put forth by the RESIST team is the potential to valorise the biomass that is removed from the forest. This is being promoted by RESIST through new business models that fall within nature-based solutions.  

One such example involves a process of turning biomass into biogas, that in turn could fuel the transportation of the raw biomass product — doesn’t get much more circular! Research on this is being carried out the Polytechnic Institue of Portalegre under the guidance of Professor Paulo Brito. 

Community engagement 

Of course, for these kinds of climate strategies to succeed, they must be co-designed with local people. To do this, RESIST regional partners CIM Região de Coimbra and Colab ForestWISE are focused on improving governance and community participation. This is facilitated by the creation of village decision-making boards. These platforms keep local people at the heart of climate resilience, ensuring that any changes to their landscapes are down to them.  

“Landscape management requires collaboration, a shared understanding of the community about the future of their territory,” said Sandra Valenta, Senior Investigator at CoLAB ForestWISE. “When we have lots of territories with lots of different owners, participatory methods and collaborative approaches are even more relevant. We need strategies to get people talking to each other and making decisions by consensus.” 

Rodrigues added: “This project also inspired a new way of being, communicating, interacting with each other, and living in a different community, because they were working toward the same goal: everyone’s safety. The Mortágua forest is the great flagship of the economy.” 

This community engagement extends also to firefighting bodies, who receive training to increase their knowledge, readiness, and preparedness in the face of fires.  

Sharing is caring 

The solutions being tested in Central Portugal’s Coimbra and Medio Tejo regions as part of the RESIST Project will be transferred to the twinning region of Extremadura, across the border in Spain, as well as Baixo Alentejo, further south in Portugal.  

This practice of knowledge sharing sits at the heart of the RESIST project, which comprises 4 lighthouse regions and 12 twins.  

In Central Portugal, RESIST’s partners are: CIM Região de Coimbra, CoLAB ForestWISE; Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Centro (CCDRC); Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre; CIM Médio Tejo; Campus de Tecnologia e Inovação, and MedioTejo21.