Silvo-pastoralism and agroforestry are increasingly recognised as innovative, fire-smart practices in the Mediterranean, helping prevent large forest fires while promoting biodiversity conservation and enhancing resilience to climate change.
Silvo-pastoralism serves multiple purposes: it boosts land productivity, fosters stewardship, supports biodiversity conservation in open areas, and preserves traditional practices alongside mosaic landscape patterns.
As an agroforestry practice, silvo-pastoralism can thrive in various environments—cultivated areas, rangelands, woodlands, and heaths. These systems incorporate diverse plant components—trees, shrubs, grasses—and animal life. This environmental complexity mitigates climatic hazards by providing multiple resources for feeding and shelter, enhancing animal welfare and resilience. In Western economies, silvo-pastoralism plays a vital role in revitalising areas that might otherwise be abandoned, such as forests, mountainous regions, and arid Mediterranean zones. This system is particularly valuable in harsh conditions characterised by challenging relief, water scarcity, intense sunlight, and low soil quality.
Silvopasture can be created by either planting trees in existing pastures or establishing pastures in existing woodlands. Each method presents unique challenges.
Integrating trees into pasture
Planting trees into existing pastures presents several challenges: young trees must be protected from livestock, trees may take years to become productive (depending on the species), and planting trees in a pasture can limit the ability to use that land for other purposes in the future.
Integrating pasture into woodland
Integrating or improving pastures within existing woodlands presents several challenges. The woodland often requires thinning to enhance light infiltration, which can be time-consuming and may necessitate heavy machinery, alongside a strategy for managing the felled trees. Thinned woodlands are prone to uncontrolled regrowth if not adequately grazed, while overgrazing without protecting saplings can hinder proper recruitment. Additionally, pasture species, particularly legumes, may need to be sown beneath the trees to improve pasture quality and quantity—a process that can be complicated if the trees have already been removed.
Fo.Re.S.T.A.S., silvo-Pastoralism, and forest fire prevention
The Fo.Re.S.T.A.S. Agency manages approximately 220,000 hectares of forest land in Sardinia and annually issues hundreds of pasture leases (“fide pascolo”). This activity directly supports traditional production chains (milk and meat), protects the territory, maintains traditional landscape patterns, conserves high biodiversity, and reduces combustible biomass.
Together with the Civil Protection and Forest Service (CFVA), Fo.Re.S.T.A.S. is one of the three regional institutions involved in fire prevention and suppression. It provides most of the firefighters and vehicles for fire control operations and, from 1st June to 15th October, supplies around 200 lookout points, 550 firewatchers, and about 300 vehicles and trucks.
This infrastructure is essential in combating fires, a phenomenon exacerbated by climate change, leading to increased plant stress, heightened vulnerability to pathogens, reduced productivity of agricultural and forestry systems, rural abandonment, and a rise in extreme wildfire events.
Within the FIRE RES and ResAlliance projects, the Agency collaborates with research institutes and firefighting associations to experiment with innovative machinery and goat grazing to maintain low biomass levels in strategic areas, particularly cork oak and pine woodlands in the inner regions of Sardinia, thereby enhancing landscape resilience to climate change.
Forestry machines against fires
Two pilot projects for Innovation Actions (IA) have been identified: one in Porto Conte (SS), focusing on mechanical thinning and shrub removal in coastal pine forests, and another at Monte Grighine (OR), combining mechanical clearance in oak and pine forests along fuel breaks with grazing. The objective is to restore firebreaks (Shaded Fuelbreak) in both affected areas.
In these locations, the project has introduced a small, multipurpose, and economical machine: a mini excavator with shears and an innovative winch. This approach complements traditional methods that rely on chainsaws, tractors, and winches.
To evaluate the outcomes of this innovative practice, it is important to note that the operations most affected by traditional mechanisation are the stacking and extraction of logs. The wood extracted with the tractor winch has become dirtier with soil, leading to greater wear on the chainsaw chain during preparation, which results in longer working times (more frequent sharpening). In contrast, the stacking of logs and shrubs carried out with the excavator has been more orderly, facilitating subsequent loading and chipping. Thus, using a single multipurpose machine speeds up working times and reduces costs per hectare.
Challenges and facilitating factors
The development of this innovative method faces several obstacles, including:
- Transporting machinery to Sardinia
- Finding skilled manpower to operate the machinery
- The cost of machinery
- Accessibility issues, particularly concerning road networks, slopes, and rocky areas
However, there are also facilitating elements, such as:
- Recent training for forestry operators and instructors in Sardinia
- Support from the Fo.Re.S.T.A.S. Agency to help resolve encountered issues
- Availability of territories, machinery, and manpower from Fo.Re.S.T.A.S.
Grazing in forests to reduce combustible biomass
Grazing in forests plays a vital role in controlling combustible biomass, monitoring the territory, and combating rural abandonment. Additionally, enhancing pasture productivity is crucial for system resilience, with leguminous plants being key to improving low-quality native grasses in Mediterranean silvopastoral systems. The pilot study aimed to assess the effects of goat grazing on fuel biomass for fire prevention, comparing grazed and non-grazed plots managed under different treatments.
Planned grazing, which defines specific spaces, methods, and timings, has led to agreements with shepherds willing to participate in the fire prevention process. This has transformed the relationship with shepherds—from mere users of grazing rights to providers of an essential service in clearing undergrowth.
As a result, the costs of fire prevention for both thinning and maintaining low biomass levels in and around firebreaks are reduced. However, this requires time and relational skills to foster improved dialogue and cooperation among private and institutional stakeholders, as well as a commitment to building a solid, trusting relationship with shepherds, who should be compensated for this ecosystem service, similar to prescribed grazing schemes.
This paradigm shift—recognising breeders as contributors to fire prevention rather than problems—is essential in the current context of land abandonment and lack of stewardship. It necessitates knowledge of resources, strategic planning, and extensive collaboration.
Among the challenges encountered are the acceptance of goat grazing by forestry services and managers, and the difficulty in calculating sustainable animal loads due to climate variability and soil vulnerability.
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This article was originally written by:
Regional Forest Agency for Land and Environment of Sardinia (Fo.Re.STAS)
