Wildfires have been raging across Albania for the past three weeks. This is not an uncommon occurrence in this time of year, and yet the Government has been extremely slow to respond. As the severity of the situation came to light, central and local branches of government shifted blame for the lack of preparedness to one another. Media outlets reported that several high-ranking government officials responsible in such circumstances were on holiday.
The Government stated that they lacked the manpower and the means to suppress wildfires, and proceeded to engage in beggar-thy-neighbour politics in order to secure these. Help came, admittedly a little late, and the wildfires are being suppressed.
The Government’s failure to implement a comprehensive fire suppression policy should not be justified. Their response to this issue is perfectly in line with its modus operandi. But it is important to note that several states in the region have had it worse, despite the fact that they were better prepared for such scenarios. Villages are burning in Greece, and the situation in Turkey is dire. The intensity and frequency of wildfires this year has been unlike anything we have seen in the past decade. Many states were caught unprepared.
This time we were lucky. Had the wildfires spread to inhabited areas in the south and the national park of Llogara, the damage to the lives of people who live close to high-risk areas, the tourism industry, and Albania’s biodiversity would have been enormous.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently published a draft report on the impact of climate change in the next decades, in which it clarified that wildfires will become more intense and frequent. 2021 is one of the hottest years recorded until now, but it is projected to be one of the coolest years in the 21st century.
It is imperative that wildfires should be treated as an issue of utmost concern. But designing a good fire suppression policy is not only a matter of having the necessary funding.
Recent catastrophic events around the world, including the ravaging wildfires in California have shattered the illusion that wildfires can be successfully and efficiently suppressed by using modern equipment and fire-retardants.
A total rethink of these policies is required, and Portugal has set a very good example on how to successfully manage wildfires by using methods which dispense with modern technology altogether. And such methods have proven to be utmost effective.
After more than 65 people died as a result of wildfires in 2017, Portugal has not suffered a disastrous blaze since. Instead of trying to suppress wildfires, they took preemptive measures in order to limit the potential spread of wildfires and their frequency.
They created buffer zones in high-risk areas beyond which wildfires could not spread and deliberately set a portion of high-risk areas on fire during the winter, given that wildfires can be controlled much better in the cold.
These methods are not new. They were heavily relied upon by agrarian societies in the past. Several renowned fire ecologists are now suggesting that a return to the past might be the best way forward when it comes to managing wildfires.
