Using fire to enhance rewilding when agricultural policies fail

Area of Science:

• Ecology and Conservation Science
• Landscape Dynamics and Fire Ecology
• Biodiversity Management

Background:

• Rewilding is proposed for biodiversity conservation but faces challenges from increased fire risk and loss of open-habitat species.
• High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf) are an alternative conservation strategy, yet policy implementation issues create uncertainty regarding wildfire management effects.
• The impact of fire suppression strategies on biodiversity under different land management policies remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To simulate fire-landscape dynamics and evaluate the effects of fire suppression scenarios on fire regime and vertebrate biodiversity.
• To compare the outcomes of rewilding and HNVf policies on fire suppression and species conservation by 2050.
• To assess the effectiveness of different fire suppression levels within rewilding and HNVf scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Utilized fire-landscape dynamics simulations to model future scenarios (2050) in a transnational biosphere reserve.
• Assessed the impact of three distinct fire suppression effectiveness levels on rewilding and HNVf policies.
• Quantified scenario effects on fire regime (burned and suppressed areas) and biodiversity (habitat suitability for 102 vertebrate species).

Main Results:

• HNVf scenarios demonstrated superior fire suppression capabilities, with up to 30,000 additional hectares suppressed between 2031-2050 compared to rewilding.
• HNVf policies benefited approximately 60% of studied vertebrate species.
• Rewilding scenarios positively impacted 20% of species, including endangered taxa, and some species (33%) benefited from fire-created open habitats.

Conclusions:

• HNVf represents the most effective scenario for long-term fire suppression and broad biodiversity conservation.
• Rewilding, particularly when combined with moderate fire suppression, can serve as a valuable nature-based solution, especially when agricultural policy support is inconsistent.
• The study highlights the complex interplay between land management policies, fire regimes, and biodiversity outcomes in conservation planning.