The implementation of firebreaks as elements of the Sicilian ecological network to increase biodiversity and improve fire protection

Wildfires are increasing dramatically, and as experience shows, firefighting alone is ineffective in controlling the phenomenon; instead, we must focus on prevention. Some of the most common prevention techniques are: 1) The construction of protective infrastructure: firebreaks, roads, and water reservoirs; 2) grazing regulations; 3) measures to reduce fuel load: preventive silviculture, prescribed burning, controlled grazing; 4) public awareness campaigns and environmental education; 5) prohibitions and penalties. We will focus on firebreaks (or fire barriers), preventive measures essentially achieved by removing or reducing vegetation in areas adjacent to the zones intended for protection. They are divided into two categories: passive firebreaks, built with widths sufficient to stop the fire, and active firebreaks, built solely to slow the fire and facilitate the intervention of firefighting teams. As experience shows, active firebreaks prove ineffective at stopping the fire, especially if the fire is set (as is often the case nowadays) on windy days. The characteristics and advantages of passive firebreaks include the total seasonal removal of vegetation over a 100–200 m stretch; in the event of a fire, they help limit aerial operations, but they entail high construction and maintenance costs, and furthermore, their construction is incompatible with soil conservation in steeply sloped areas. The removal of herbaceous and shrubby vegetation in the summer can be carried out using mechanical methods; intensive grazing; prescribed burning; herbicides (effective but harmful and not recommended). Currently, the maintenance of the firebreaks is performed annually and manually and is costly; we propose an alternative management approach that, in addition to reducing costs, offers benefits for biodiversity. The proposed techniques include: widening the firebreaks outside the area to be protected and thus converting them from active to passive; mechanizing them by removing rocks, to be done only once in midsummer so as not to disturb flora and fauna; and grazing the strips and/or mowing them, where possible mechanically, after the flowering of herbaceous species. These interventions would make it possible to transform these areas - which, based on site inspections conducted in the case studies, fall under habitat 5330 (Thermo-Mediterranean and pre-desert shrublands) - into priority habitat 6220* (Substeppe grasslands and annual vegetation of the Thero-Brachypodietea). The presence of rock piles would provide shelter for wildlife, and grazing would benefit greatly from this, potentially reducing pressure on forested areas, as Paolo Balsamo wrote in 1800 “è evidente che poche salme di ben coltivati prati e boschi assai più copiosi e migliori foraggi e legna di ogni sorte somministrano che centinaia di salme di pessime praterie e boscaglie [it is evident that a few acres of well-cultivated meadows and forests provide far more abundant and better fodder and firewood of every kind than hundreds of acres of poor pastures and scrublands]”. In addition to these measures, with the savings achieved by reducing the costs of constructing external roads, firebreaks especially active, internal ones could be implemented, also by enhancing existing roads to protect the most valuable forest areas. Furthermore, we propose expanding water collection basins, including through the construction of new small reservoirs, which would facilitate rapid helicopter response and also increase biodiversity.