Forest fires, communities and the role of lived experiences

Abstract

The forest fires that occurred in 2017 were one of the worst disasters that have ever affected Portugal, with more than 275,845 hectares burnt from a yearly total of 424,000 hectares (ICNF, 2017), 116 fatalities and hundreds of people injured. Communities and landscapes were devastated, and houses, livelihoods and businesses destroyed. Oliver-Smith (1996, p. 309) has shown, from a sociocultural perspective, that disasters of this magnitude impact on place identity and create a sense of loss, mainly when there is a loss of formal public places, of informal gathering places, and of other physical features symbolic of community identity. The impact of forest fires on landscapes identities has been well documented (Butler, Sarlöv-Herlin, Knez, Ångman, Sang, & Åkerskog, 2018), and a multilevel approach to landscape fires as social disasters has been proposed (Gill, 2005). The literature related to forest fires in Portugal is vast. More recent contributions have highlighted the social context of the areas affected (Oliveira, Zêzere, Queiróis, & Pereira, 2017), the reactive nature of public policies and the legislation produced (Mourão & Martinho, 2016), fire regimes and management (Mateus & Fernandes, 2014) and forest fires preparedness and community engagement (Paton & Tedim, 2013). Fernandes Guiomar, Mateus and Oliveira (2017) proposed a more complex institutional and legislative analysis related to forest fires in Portugal.