Joint management to reduce the risk of forest fires and the degradation of Rianxo's common land
The Plataforma pola Defensa do Monte is carrying out forestry work corresponding to the first year of the Barbanza Ecosocial Laboratory project, financed with European funds.
November 18, 2024 – As a project, Barbanza Ecosocial Laboratory participants include, alongside the Plataforma pola Defensa do Monte (PDM), Fundación RIA, the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, the Montescola Foundation, and the Rianxo City Council. PDM is responsible for developing actions 2 and 3. The first of these actions aims to improve the biodiversity of the forest area in the municipality of Rianxo by restoring the areas most affected by recurring fires in the Barbanza area, especially the 2019 fire, which caused severe damage to the common land of Rianxo and Dodro.
It was precisely those fires that led to the creation of the PDM. According to its president, Rafael Saco, “this catastrophe provoked a change of mindset in the Rianxo common land comunities, prompting our unity to manage forest land and promote the necessary work to create forests that can better defend themselves against the scourge of fires.” Since its inception, the association has sought to establish multifunctional and sustainable management mechanisms, ensuring the active participation of local communities. The actions developed so far demonstrate the viability of this approach.
Action 2 of the Laboratory project received €882,076 in funding from the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), of which €557,150 will be allocated to forestry service companies to execute the work plan defined by PDM’s technical staff. Throughout this year, eight batches of work were put out to tender through competitive bidding, and were ultimately awarded to six different companies, demonstrating the level of competitiveness achieved in the process. “The publication of the project on the contracting portal, along with strong promotion on social media, led to the participation of companies from the provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra, and even from outside Galicia, such as two companies that won three of the eight tender lots” says Daniel Rodríguez, coordinator of the project.
PDM, complementing these projects carried out by third parties and thanks to the provision of a tractor by the Araño CMVMC, hired a tractor driver and an operator to carry out fire-preventive brush clearing in various forest areas. “This is a dynamic of community work that we want to promote at the PDM, since forest management cannot be expected to be sustainable over time if it is not carried out jointly with other surrounding common lands, with the common goals of reducing the risk of forest fires and strengthening the infrastructure that will be essential both when facing a fire and when accessing the common land to maintain or enjoy it, within our perspective of multifunctional woodland” emphasizes Rafael Saco.
The tendered works are expected to be completed in the next three months, after which an assessment of each type of project can be made. The goal is for these projects to become a benchmark initiative that will achieve greater involvement among other landowners, both communities and individuals, who currently lack the motivation to manage their common land. “We are aware that the frequent fires of recent decades have demoralized forest owners, who feel they cannot enjoy a mature forest, but we are optimistic about the final outcome of this project, and we believe that the restoration currently underway on more than 500 hectares will spark a social movement toward the forest we want” concludes Rafael Saco.
Barbanza Ecosocial Lab has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) of the Government of Spain, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
Coordinated by Fundación RIA, the Barbanza Ecosocial Lab is a project dedicated to promoting the transition towards environmental sustainability and strengthening resilience in the territorial management of the Barbanza common land.