More than 10,000 trees planted to combat the loss of forest mass caused by fires

Fundación Aquae, the Aquona Foundation, develops the ‘Planting Oxygen’ project to stand up to the fires that annually, especially in summer, devastate thousands of hectares in our country. The objective of this program, launched in 2015, is to plant trees in areas that have suffered a fire or suffer loss of forest mass and consequent drought and desertification. Since its creation, they have already planted more than 10,000 in different areas of the country, among which Zamora stands out, and before the end of 2019 another 2,500 trees will be planted.

As explained in the attached infographic, prepared by Fundación Aquae, trees act as “carbon sinks”, that is, they absorb CO2 (a tree can absorb up to 150 kg of CO2 in 40 years) and, in turn, generate oxygen (22 trees supply a person's O2 demand per day). For example, the 10,000 trees planted by Fundación Aquae to date will eliminate more than 750 tons of CO2 in the next 40 years. Another benefit of trees: its strategic placement in urban areas can lower the air temperature between 2 ºC and 8 ºC.

So far this year (until July 28) there have been 4,969 conatos (they were extinguished before they reached one hectare of affected area), 2,810 fires (the burned area was equal to or greater than one hectare) and nine Great Fires Forest (GIF), that is, each exceeded 500 hectares burned. All these accidents have burned more than 55,000 hectares in our country, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAP). The first half of 2019 contrasts with the figures for 2018, considered the best year of the century in terms of forest fires and the second since there are records (1961): in 2018 there were 7,146 fires (43.19% less than in 2017) that burned 25,162 hectares (86.03% less than in 2017).

Of the total claims recorded last year, 5,154 were reported; 1,989 were fires and three were GIFs (in 2017 there were 56). These three Great Forest Fires, which accounted for 20.97% of the total area calcined in 2018, were recorded in Santa Columba de Curueño (León), where 645 hectares burned in May 2018; in Nerva (Huelva), with about 1,500 hectares burned; and in Llutxtent (Valencia), where the fire swept over 3,100 hectares.

The spatial distribution of claims in 2018 focused on the Northwest (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the provinces of León and Zamora), where 43.27% of the fires were recorded; the interior communities (other non-coastal autonomous communities, except León and Zamora, as well as the Basque Country), with 34.45%; the Mediterranean (coastal autonomous communities with the Mediterranean Sea, including its inland provinces), with 21.58%; and the Canary Islands, where only 0.70% of the claims occurred.

Spain is one of the countries of the European Union most affected by forest fires and the second in the Mediterranean (behind Portugal), a problem that threatens to intensify due to the effects of climate change. In 2017 and 2018 alone, the fires have caused 225 fatalities between Portugal, Greece and Spain.

«A key factor is the hydric stress of the vegetation, as a consequence of the drought, so that many dry and dead plants and trees burn easily due to the lack of rainfall. The abandonment of the rural environment and the traditional uses of forests has increased the area of ​​young and shrubby masses; and the urbanization and recreational uses of the mountain translate into a greater risk of ignition. All this, together with the cumulative effects of global warming, has created the perfect conditions for large fires to be registered in our country, ”said firefighter Oriol Vilalta, creator of the Pau Costa Foundation (responsible for the first global platform to fight against forest fires) and social entrepreneur of the Network Drivers of Change (RIC), promoted by Aquae and Ashoka Foundation, among other organizations.

More info: https://www.fundacionaquae.org/blog/infografias/