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Blazing the trail: Social innovation supporting wildfire-resilient territories in Catalonia (Spain)

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  • Rodríguez Fernández-Blanco, Carmen
  • Górriz-Mifsud, Elena
  • Prokofieva, Irina
  • Muys, Bart
  • Parra, Constanza

Abstract

Mediterranean territories have co-evolved and been shaped by fire throughout history. However, global environmental change conditions are increasing the size, intensity and severity of wildfires, which have gone from a regular natural disturbance to a serious threat for civil protection, surpassing firefighting capacities. Therefore, building resilience in fire-prone territories is an increasingly relevant policy and management objective. However, the notion of resilience has been criticized for paying insufficient attention to key social issues such as socio-political dynamics, power imbalances and societal change. At the same time, social science contributions to wildfire research are still rather limited. In this paper, we bridge social innovation theory to resilience theory in order to create a territorially embedded and socially sensitive framework for assessing socio-ecological resilience. From this perspective, we then examine how Forest Defence Groups (ADFs, by their Catalan acronym) have evolved from grassroots, bottom-up initiatives to well-established bottom-linked institutions and we evaluate their contributions to socio-ecological resilience in the territories where they operate. Our results show that ADFs contribute in several aspects to socio-ecological resilience and that the pave the way for opening up spaces of dialogue and collaboration through which local communities can engage with the issues that directly affect them, such as wildfires.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodríguez Fernández-Blanco, Carmen & Górriz-Mifsud, Elena & Prokofieva, Irina & Muys, Bart & Parra, Constanza, 2022. "Blazing the trail: Social innovation supporting wildfire-resilient territories in Catalonia (Spain)," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:138:y:2022:i:c:s1389934122000314
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2022.102719
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    2. Slavec, Ana & Hoeben, Annechien D. & Moreno-Torres, Miguel & Primožič, Lea & Stern, Tobias, 2023. "When intentions do not matter: Climate change mitigation and adaptation innovations in the Forest-based sector," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Agnė Šimelytė & Manuela Tvaronavičienė, 2022. "Technology Transfer from Nordic Capital Parenting Companies to Lithuanian and Estonian Subsidiaries or Joint Capital Companies: The Analysis of the Obtained Primary Data," Data, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-23, October.

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