Best Practice Knowledge Base
7.7 Grazing for fire control
Goats grazing to reduce shrub woodfuel. Prades, Spain © Hernán Serrano-León
Livestock grazing can be applied in the context of fire prevention by reducing vegetation biomass in the landscape. Specifically, this practice can be applied to create natural firebreaks and vegetation gaps, breaking the vegetation vertical continuity, or to manage specific plant species. When carefully managed, grazing can be cost-effective and simultaneously provide economic benefits to local communities.
I. Guidelines
| Nº | Title | Author | Year | Focus Region | Language | Summary | Link |
| 1 | Pastoreo contra incendios: propuesta de WWF España para adaptar el territorio al cambio climático | WWF | 2022 | Spain | Spanish | Proposal of grazing to control wildfires in Spain, both technical and policy recommendations. | https://lavolunteca.com/ficheros/Biblioteca/Jv9o5CK-FicheroBiblioteca.pdf |
| 2 | Gobernanza y resiliencia en la gestión preventiva de incendios: el papel del pastoreo en Andalucía y Cataluña | Varela Redondo et al. | 2017 | Spain | Spanish | Examples of governance opportunities in the pastoril systems using grazing to prevent wildfires in two spanish regions. | https://polired.upm.es/index.php/pastos/article/view/3862 |
II. Scientific articles
| Nº | Title | Author | Year | Focus region | Language | Type | Summary | Link |
| 1 | Planned Herbivory in the Management of Wildfire Fuels | Nader et al. | 2007 | USA | English | Narrative review | Grazing is most effective at treating smaller diameter live fuels that can greatly impact the rate of spread of a fire | https://doi.org/10.2111/1551-501X(2007)29[18:PHITMO]2.0.CO;2 |
| 2 | Effects of large herbivores on fire regimes and wildfire mitigation | Rouet-Leduc et al. | 2021 | World | English | Systematic review | Review of the capacity of herbivores to mitigate wildfire damage, and recommendations for grazing management in wildfire mitigation strategies | https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13972 |
| 3 | Clearing shrubland and extensive livestock farming: Active prevention to control wildfires in the Mediterranean mountains | Lasanta et al. | 2018 | Mediterranean | English | Observational study | Assesment of the impact on wildfires of grazing combined with shrub clearings in a case study in Spain | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.08.104 |
| 4 | Biological fire prevention method: Evaluating the effects of goat grazing on the fire-prone mediterranean scrub | Mancilla Leytón & Martín Vicente | 2012 | Mediterranean | English | Experiment | Grazing by goats in a Mediterranean woodland resulted in a lower fire risk due to the lower vegetation height and total biomass volume | https://doi.org/10.5424/fs/2012212-02289 |
| 5 | Herramientas legales y técnicas para la implementación del herbivorismo pírico en el suroeste de Europa | Canaleta & Yebra | 2022 | South West Europe | Spanish | Narrative review | Among others, summarizes grazing experiences and practices for managing open spacies within southwest Europe | https://doi.org/10.4000/soe.8608 |