Planning a sustainable, fire-resilient landscape on commons lands

Abstract

Common lands are traditionally communally managed, low-productive territories that have historically played an important role as integral components of a broader agrosystem. However, these landscapes are increasingly marginalised. This is a study of the common lands of the Fajão-Vidual parish in Portugal, which represent more than half of the total area and are currently managed collectively by the parish as a consequence of rural depopulation. The primary goal of this work is to develop a transformation plan for these common lands that tackles local challenges, particularly the unmanaged landscape and its associated risks, such as wildfires, while fostering a more sustainable and resilient landscape. This study presents a preliminary transformation plan, characterised by the ecological network, followed by the FIRELAN model and incorporated habitat data, representing 64% of the total common land area. This integration was informed by fieldwork and photo interpretation. By adding habitat-specific information, this approach advances the FIRELAN model a step further, proposing actions beyond its framework of maintenance conservation and conversion. Specifically, for the identified habitats, the proposed transformation actions include maintaining conservation status, habitat restoration, successional progression, habitat regeneration, and assisted habitat regeneration.