Role in FIRE-ADAPT: researcher and co-organiser of the Argentina Study Hub
Organisation: Facultad de Ciencias Hídricas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL)
Country: Argentina
What motivated me to join FIRE-ADAPT
One of my lines of research at the university is the incidence of fire in the wetland. We started with the monitoring of spaces accidentally burned during the pandemic, especially looking at vegetation growth and how this related to the hydrodynamics of sites in the wetland. Then the possibility arose to participate in FIRE-ADAPT as a project on integrated fire management in different ecosystems, and we saw it as an opportunity. We thought the wetland we work with is important and it would be interesting if it was there. In addition, for us, it is a growth in knowledge and relationships.
About my secondment with CTFC in Spain, during the project´s gathering at its Spain Study Hub
What the objectives of my secondment were
Mainly representing my faculty in the activities of the work packages that took place at the Spain Study Hub – everything that has to do with fire ecology, to be able to see and decide how we would organise the work from then until later in the project, and how we can contribute as a scientific community. In addition, participate in the workshop that was offered in Montpellier on the theme of social impact, that is, the social perspective of fire management.
How it benefited CTFC and me
CTFC is a forest technology centre and has a lot of management with remote sensors and prescribed burns in the territory. We are beginning to delineate and design prescribed burns in the wetland. So, we saw it as an opportunity to learn from them management strategies in general. We complied in part because at both the CTFC and the University of Girona we saw different results or different alternatives of management plans in another environment but that serve us, and we also saw tools that can be used to determine different variables that need to be characterised when carrying out a prescribed burn. It also helped us to interact with other researchers and work with them in the future in a slightly more personalized way to learn and be able to implement what they do here in Argentina.
From the CTFC’s point of view, they are not used to working with our environment. Somehow, we can offer a natural laboratory for them to put into practice some fire management techniques, if they are interested.
How similar and different the realities of wildfires in Argentina and Spain are
They are similar in the sense that both in Argentina and in Spain there are large wildfires that are uncontrollable. Hectares and hectares of forests, moors or savannahs are burned because of human intervention, lightning or other causes.
They differ in the sense that Catalonia is very advanced with the implementation and respect of an integrated fire management plan. In addition, there is a lot of work done by scientists, the community involving firefighters, and the different instances of the State. This is not the case in Argentina. There the state policy is of total suppression of fire and penalisation of the generation of fire; all fires are characterised in the same way; any fire is a wildfire and yet the practice of fire is still done. We need to build what is in Catalonia and use all the tools we can find to be able to demonstrate that not all wildfires and fires are bad, and that some are necessary to be able to control greater damage, that is, the causalities of the fires are different in the two countries.
It seems to me that, to some extent, fire is used more in Argentina to take advantage of the land for an intensive use of livestock, change the land use, or simply cause damage in some cases, and we have a very sectorised and strong public opinion that puts a lot of pressure on politicians and makes them, those who make decisions, just think that suppressing fire is the way to go without knowing what the fire ecology is like, what is really burning, how it burns, what is the effect on the environment, how is the biodiversity of what is burning, how biodiversity is regenerated and how to manage it.
What caught my attention about Spain
One is always curious to know and see Europe. I really like history, and living with it is essential. I loved the opportunity to have gone to Spain to know a little about the history, art, food, and people who inhabit it. I compared society in Spain a bit with that of Argentina. I was all the time looking at how we are as a society, how Spaniards are, and how I would like to live.
I loved everything that is architecture, preservation of old buildings, and cleanliness.
This is me
Favourite food: potato omelette
Favourite film: The Hobbit, by Peter Jackson
Favourite singer or band: at the moment, Manu Chao
Superpower I´d like to have: time travel
In Argentina, I´d take you to: know natural beauties such as the Iguazu Falls, the wetlands themselves, or the Esteros del Iberá, which is also a wetland and a world heritage site too.