Integrating Multispecies Justice Approach for Climate Risk Management in Forest Areas of Mediterranean Europe

Abstract

Policy HighlightsTo achieve the recommendation stated in the title, we propose the following: Euro-Mediterranean forests face specific climate risks topped with demographic, economic, and societal pressures which call for a different approach to climate risk management. Interdisciplinary approaches in fire ecology, conservation biology, ecological economics, and political ecology unveil the emotional connection between humans and non-humans. Instead of end-of-pipe fire suppression, policy attention should focus on fuel build-up in the landscape and centre on the “state of shared fragility” between humans and more-than-humans. To prevent the firefighting trap, fire management and adaptation policies should be reviewed to incorporate scientific expertise, local ecological knowledge, and traditional practices of forest communities. Locally grounded, value-based responses such as IPBES’s Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP) framework hold promising potential for multispecies justice in Euro-Mediterranean forests.