LIFE projects turn to grazing to prevent forest fires

Wildfires scorch up to 500 000 hectares of forest across the Mediterranean every year – an area equivalent to half the island of Cyprus – with climate change making these blazes more intense and longer lasting. To reduce the risk of these devastating fires, some four-legged help is being enlisted by two LIFE projects. 

In Catalonia, Spain, the LIFE AgroForAdapt project has been investigating how livestock farming can be combined with forestry to reduce a wooded landscape’s vulnerability to fires.  

This approach, known as agroforestry, allows cattle, sheep or goats to wander between the trees, where they eat and trample vegetation that could provide fuel for a wildfire. The animals also benefit from the shade and shelter the trees provide.  

The Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), which is coordinating the LIFE AgroForAdapt project, has developed a tool that uses data about the landscape to determine where livestock farming will be most effective. It can identify areas where the wildfire risk is highest, such as where grasslands and forestry meet. Grazing animals can help to create a natural fire break by eating grass, shrugs and other flammable vegetation. 

Catalonia has seen wildfires emerge as one of the region’s most serious threats. Last year saw a 62% increase in wildfires compared to 2024, leading officials in the region to warn that fire management there has entered a ‘new risk paradigm’.  

The project team has piloted their tool, known as SilPas, in the Prades Mountains of Catalonia, which are particularly vulnerable to wildfires, identifying locations that are particularly vulnerable to fire and allowing livestock to be grazed there. They hope, however, to expand its use across the entire Catalan region. 

‘Supported by technology and livestock, this approach has the potential to make a decisive contribution to wildfire prevention and to the creation of safer, more resilient landscapes,’ says Raquel Tejedor, a research technician at CTFC who developed the SilPas tool. 

Faced with ever intensifying summer heatwaves, the risk of wildfires is growing right across Europe. The summer of 2025 was the worst on record for wildfires with nearly 1 million hectars burned. Among the worst hit countries there were Portugal, Spain, France, Cyprus and Greece. Since 2021, the LIFE programme has supported at least 9 separate projects aiming to tackle the wildfire problem, sharing more than €42 million of EU funding between them.  

Among these is LIFE Pyrenees4Clima, a project involving seven regions from Spain, France and Andorra aimed at improving the resilience of the Pyrenees mountain range to climate change. The Pyrenees are warming around 30% faster than average leading to drought and an increased risk of forest fires, according to the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory, which is leading the project.  

One of the projects first results has been a cross-border technical opinion on climate risks in the Pyrenees, which proposes 16 measures. 'These include strengthening coordination between civil protection services and fire brigades across the territory, adapting landscape management, supporting extensive livestock farming to maintain landscape structures that help prevent wildfires,' says Pilar Estopiña, the project's communication manager.  

For example, the project is promoting agroforestry farming with local breeds of cow that are well-adapted to the mountain habitat. The cattle are then moved around in a planned manner so their grazing can reduce the risk of wildfire.  

LIFE AgroForAdapt and Pyrenees4Clima projects support the New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 and the Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change.