Role in FIRE-ADAPT: coleader of the thematic area “biodiversity conservation”
Organisation: Grup de recerca en Biologia Animal i BioLand, Departament de Ciències Ambientals, Universitat de Girona (UdG)
Country: Spain
What motivated me to join FIRE-ADAPT
Imma Oliveras and Núria Prat invited me to participate directly, and it was an irresistible invitation, giving me the opportunity to share with people from different fields and countries, work as a team with very good experts and on an exciting topic: integrated fire management from different perspectives. I have also been interested in the ecology of fire and the relationship between biodiversity and fire for many years.
What my area of work in the project pursues
Review what is currently known about biodiversity adapted to fire or “pyric biodiversity”, collect the methods used to study biodiversity in areas subject to integrated fire management, and generate new data from field trips in Mediterranean and Latin American countries and recommendations for more sustainable integrated fire management with biodiversity.
What I highlight about the project
The confluence of different research and operational teams from different countries working on complementary aspects. How research can be complemented with knowledge and experience from the operational world so that we can do research that is really useful. We really need to know how landscapes are managed and what operations or specific actions are carried out: their calendar, operability, extension, frequency, etc. On the other hand, the operational world needs more information that is accessible, with public data and adapted to what managers need to know about, in our case, biodiversity; to address aspects such as when different plant and animal species reproduce in order to adapt action schedules to times when they are not so sensitive; or which organisms are dependent on or adapted to fire, and which are sensitive to it. The operatives see the reality of management and work not only in the field, but also with politicians and people who make decisions and manage budgets.
An example of cross-links with other areas of work
I think we’re going to collaborate quite a bit with the social work group, number three. They have a very, very extensive view of different forms of management, of the problems that have existed, of how traditional knowledge has been forgotten and fire has sometimes been outlawed, etc. to understand the current biodiversity. To understand it we have to look at it with the historical perspective, and to understand history we have to understand human action and changes in this action and land use over time.
I really want to travel to Brazil, where there is the Study Hub where we are going to deliver a workshop to collect information on methods to study biodiversity, and to be able to see communities that carry out their activities in Pantanal, in the Cerrado or in the Amazon, and that use fire. This is exciting and we will be able to cross it with studies in biodiversity.
This is me
Favourite food: well cooked vegetables
Favourite film: Paris, Texas, by Wim Wenders
Favourite singer or band: The tallest man on Earth
I admire: Edward Wilson
Superpower I´d like to have: eliminate the excess of anthropocentrism from humanity
In Spain, I’d take you to: Cap de Creus, with the Pyrenees embracing the sea