An experiment carried out in the Collserola Natural Park aims to use the animals’ diet to clear the forest.
In Barcelona, between April and July, 290 sheep and goats employed by the municipality had one mission: prevent fires by eating as much vegetation as possible. The Catalan city’s town hall conducted a multi-month experiment based on organic grazing.
This technique intends to use herbivores in certain vulnerable areas. While feeding, the animals naturally clear the land, removing dry grass, branches or bushes that could serve as fuel should a fire break out.
A large park of 8000 hectares
“We’re not inventing anything here. We are bringing up to date a practice that used to exist and that has disappeared,” explained the guard Guillem Canaleta, member of the Pau Costa Foundation. The latter had already sent several animals to the province of Girona in 2016 with a similar order.
Barcelona City Council has decided to deploy the four-legged animals in the Collserola Natural Park, which dominates the city with its 8,000 hectares of greenery. And who is particularly sensitive to fire. On average, 50 fires break out there every year, making the role of the goats and sheep that worked so hard this summer even more important.
“It’s not a miracle solution. But it is part of a broader plan to make the country more resilient to fires,” Julia Rouet-Leduc, a researcher at the University of Leipzig, Germany, told the Guardian.
Cities can also benefit financially from the use of these animals. In Andalusia, in southern Spain, the technique of organic grazing has been used for two decades. Now 100,000 animals are employed by the region, saving 75% of the cost of mechanized land clearing.
Proponents of this practice also argue that animals participate in land re-pollination, carrying seeds with them. In the end, the Catalan goats and sheep cleared 72 hectares of the park where they were sent.
A technique developing in France
This technique has already been adopted in other parts of the world. Especially in California, in Portugal, but also in France, more modestly.
In 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture had vowed a breeding of Rove goats in the Bouches-du-Rhône that “participate in fire prevention by clearing the scrubland”.
“A goat is the best ecological brushcutter. Especially the Rove goat, which is not difficult in terms of feed. (…) Goats can eat anything of their size if they stand on their two hind legs,” said Éric Prioré, breeder at the time.
This summer, the association “Bêle colline” in Hyères (Var) offered its services to landowners. Armed with an armada of goats, the association went from plot to plot to clear them naturally. In France, owners who live less than 200 meters from a forest or forest are legally obliged to clean their property.