environmental Protection
Barcelona protects itself from fires – with goats and sheep
Goats play an important role as livestock in Spain in various ways (symbol image)
© Andreas Poertner / Chrome Orange / Picture Alliance
To protect themselves from fire, Barcelona now relies on goats and sheep, among other things. 290 animals have already been used in a pilot project. In the future there will be even more. However, the idea behind it is not new.
Barcelona now also rely on goats and sheep to fight major fires. Their job: eat. They are used in areas that are particularly prone to fire. There they till the soil they feed on and trample on, providing better protection from potential fires. The animals are either semi-wild or are looked after by a shepherd, who is compensated for this, writes the “Guardian” in an article on the prevention measures in Barcelona.
“We’re not inventing anything new here,” Guillem Canaleta is quoted as saying by the non-profit organization Pau Costa Foundation, which has been using the strategy in the neighboring province of Girona since 2016.
In Barcelona, a pilot project started in April in Collserola Park, an 8,000-hectare nature park. According to Eloi Badia, who is in charge of climate emergencies and ecological transition in the city, there are 50 fires a year in the park. Usually they are easy to delete. But you want to be prepared for worse in the city.
Catalonia and other regions of Spain are having a hard time this summer with severe forest fires. Severe droughts and extreme heat waves are plaguing the country. And climate change will exacerbate the situation in the future.
In Barcelona there are plans for more animals in action
The pilot project in Barcelona ended last month. However, according to the Guardian, there are plans to spread it to three herds and possibly more green spaces in the city. The goats and sheep in the city would also bring other benefits: They transport seeds and use them to fertilize the soil on which they travel. A contribution to biodiversity.
In the south of Spain, the procedure has been widespread for 20 years. Goats are also used for fire prevention in Portugal. Here they nibble on the undergrowth and thus clean the forest, because dry twigs act as fire accelerators.
Sources: The Guardians, Deutschlandfunk