EEI SEMINAR: “Democratizing wildfire strategies. Insights from a participatory process in the Montseny Biosphere Reserve (Catalonia, Spain)” by Gonzalo Gamboa

Title: “Democratizing wildfire strategies. Insights from a participatory process in the Montseny Biosphere Reserve (Catalonia, Spain)”





Speaker: Gonzalo Gamboa, ICTA-UAB



Moderator: Martí Orta, ICTA-UAB

Day: Wednesday, 20th February

Time: 12.30h

Room: Z/023

Participatory planning networks made of government agencies, stakeholders, citizens and scientists are receiving attention as a potential pathway to build resilient landscapes. A key challenge lies in incorporating local knowledge and social values about landscape into operational wildfire management strategies. Such strategies entail difficult decisions about intervention priorities among different regions, values and socioeconomic interests. Therefore, there is increasing interest in developing tools that facilitate decision-making during emergencies. In this seminar we present the experience of an ongoing project to democratize wildfire strategies by incorporating social values about landscape in suppression and prevention planning. To do so, we are building a network of researchers, practitioners, and citizens across governance scales. We will combine knowledge on expected wildfires, landscape co-valuation by relevant actors, and citizen participation sessions to design a wildfire strategy that minimizes the loss of social values. By doing so, it is expected that the project contributes to adapting forests and communities to climate change effects in wildfire regimes.

Bio

Gonzalo Gamboa has an extensive experience in combining participatory approaches and quantitative analytical methods. His work falls within the field of science for policy, developing and deploying different methodologies for the production and use of socio-economic and biophysical indicators to support decision making. Gonzalo has applied these methods in a wide range of fields, such as renewable energy, coastal management, water management and food system analysis.