How do we avoid another year of devastating #wildfires in Europe? How can #grazing help protect our forests? Wildfires destroy up to 500,000 hectares of forest across the Mediterranean every year – an area equivalent to half the island of Cyprus. Scientific studies show that forest fire damage is likely to increase in the future due to climate change and the lack of 'fuel management', i.e. not cleaning forest vegetation and fallen branches below the trees, which end up working as combustion fuel, in abandoned rural areas. In Catalonia, Spain, the LIFE AgroForAdapt project has been investigating how livestock farming can be combined with forestry to reduce a wooded landscape’s vulnerability to fires. This approach, known as #agroforestry, allows cattle, sheep or goats to wander between the trees, where they eat and trample vegetation that could otherwise provide fuel for wildfires. The animals also benefit from the shade and shelter the trees provide. ‘Supported by technology and livestock, this has the potential to make a decisive contribution to wildfire prevention and the creation of safer, more resilient landscapes,’ says Raquel Tejedor, a research technician at CTFC who developed the SilPas tool.  Learn more about this LIFE project: https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/life-projects-turn-grazing-prevent-forest-fires-2026-03-17_en Learn how the EU protects its wildlife in this video: https://youtu.be/5F1dvTR8pxo?si=fatg9IApJbpOCpXD Sources: https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/life-projects-aim-reduce-deadly-forest-fires-across-europe-2023-08-22_en https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/media/stories/castilla-y-leon-grazing-wildfire-resilience_en https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/7/11/409 https://lavozmadrid.es/en/madrid-capital/general/madrid-reinforces-forest-fire-prevention-across-5298-hectares 0:00 Nature's own firefighters? 0:22 The Goat 0:33 The Bison 0:52 The Donkey 1:05 The Cachena 1:23 What is Grazing? 1:57 What are other ways to prevent wildfires? 2:52 What are the benefits of Grazing? 3:25 Long-term solutions?