Improving Wildfire Resilience in the Mediterranean Central-South Regions of Chile

Abstract

Wildfires in central-south Chile, consistent with trends observed in other Mediterranean regions, are expected to become more frequent and severe, threatening ecosystems and impacting millions of people. This study aims to enhance wildfire resilience in the central-south regions of Chile through the provision of robust information on current wildfire management practices and comparison with successful alternatives implemented in other fire-prone Mediterranean regions. With this aim, we consulted 55 local stakeholders involved in wildfire management, and alongside a comparative analysis of wildfire statistics and resource allocation in selected Mediterranean regions, we critically assessed different strategies to improve wildfire prevention and management in central-south Chile. The comparative analysis indicated notable economic under-investment for wildfire prevention in Chile. Compared to other Mediterranean countries, Chile is clearly below in terms of investment in forest fire prevention, both in global (public investment) and specific terms ($ ha⁻¹, GDP per capita). The experts consulted included fuel management, governance and community participation, territorial management, landscape planning, socioeconomic evaluation, and education and awareness as key aspects for wildfire prevention. The results of the questionnaire indicated that there was a broad consensus regarding the importance of managing biomass to reduce fuel loads and vegetation continuity, thereby enhancing landscape resilience. Landscape planning and territorial management were also emphasized as critical tools to balance ecological needs with those of local communities, mitigating wildfire risks. Fire-Smart management emerged as a nature-based solution and a promising integrated approach, combining fuel treatments with modeling, simulation, and scenario evaluation based on local and regional environmental data. Additionally, educational and social engagement tools were considered vital for addressing misconceptions and fostering community support. Besides a better integration of rural planning with social demands, this study underscores the urgent need to substantially increase the investment and significance of wildfire prevention measures in central-south Chile, which are key to improving its wildfire resilience. Our work contextualizes the reality of wildfires in central-south Chile and directly contributes to mitigating this growing concern by critically examining successful wildfire resilience strategies from comparable fire-prone regions, complementing ongoing local efforts and offering a practical guide for stakeholders in wildfire management and prevention, with particular relevance to central-south Chile and other regions with similar characteristics.

1. Introduction

Wildfires are responsible for significant impacts on ecosystem services, severe damage to infrastructure, and, in some cases, human losses. Although the global area burned seems to show a downward trend in recent decades [1,2], climate change is responsible for regional increases in burned area at the global level [2,3]. Some fire-prone regions, like those with a Mediterranean-type climate, have experienced unprecedented wildfires in recent years characterized by extreme fire propagation, intensity, and extension [4]. These severe fires have induced significant impacts on different environmental aspects, including global fire emissions [5], soils [6], forest resilience [7], water supply [8], and infrastructures [9,10]. Wildfires imply the uncontrolled combustion of vegetation that often requires significant extinguishing efforts to limit the catastrophic consequences [11]. Unlike other natural risks, where the emphasis is largely placed on identifying vulnerabilities and adaptations, the primary focus on wildfires has generally been placed on combating them [12]. Therefore, it is important to focus on key aspects explaining the increase in wildfire occurrence and associated impacts in order to implement effective mitigation measures.

Wildfire management can be broadly classified into two primary categories: fire suppression activities, encompassing combat and extinction operations, and prevention measures aimed to reduce the risk of wildfires and mitigate their impact [12,13]. Historically, wildfire management in fire-prone Mediterranean regions has primarily relied on fire suppression activities [13,14]. This fire suppression paradigm has led to considerable fuel build-up that has effectively contributed to both increased wildfire risks and the likelihood of larger-scale, more virulent fires [13,14,15,16,17]. In many regions across the globe, inadequate land planning and rural abandonment have also triggered changes in land use in recent decades, including the expansion of commercial forestry plantations and the spread of invasive species, which have increased fuel loads across the landscape while also contributing to the higher occurrence of large-scale wildfires [13,14,17]. These large-scale fires are further influenced by climate change, which complicates firefighting operations in the absence of large-scale fuel treatment [13,18]. While there have been some recent shifts in wildfire management strategies, current policies do not quite address the underlying causes of the problem, as they usually prioritize reactive fire suppression [13].

Land-use changes are especially critical in wildfire occurrence and spread, particularly changes occurring in the interface between urban and rural areas [19,20]. These zones are commonly referred to as the wildland–urban interface (WUI). While formal definitions of WUI vary [21], it may be broadly defined as the territory where urban areas intersect and interact with wild or rural areas [15,22,23]. The WUI encompasses the peripheries of medium-large cities and small communities, zones where buildings and infrastructures coexist with forests and other land uses, also including patches of non-productive land within urban areas [24]. Globally, the WUI is expanding due to different factors acting alone or in combination, which include changes in land use, the expansion of urban infrastructure, a decrease in cultivated area, or land abandonment following wildfires [13,23,25]. The continuous expansion of human infrastructures on rural land over the past decades has caused profound changes in productive systems, together with the decline in traditional practices such as agriculture and livestock farming. Such land-use transformations are increasingly linked to growing land speculation, where the WUI may remain largely neglected in anticipation of higher market returns. Unlike fires in natural ecosystems or forestry plantations, WUI fires propagate through various flammable sources and are not limited to vegetation, causing significant negative impacts and potentially contributing to extreme fires under certain conditions [26].

Landscape management aimed at improving wildfire resilience at the WUI should comprise a proper assessment of risks and vulnerabilities. Furthermore, such management requires planning at multiple scales as it involves both natural and anthropogenic elements (agricultural crops, parks and gardens, ornamental vegetation, industrial construction, buildings, etc.). These scales include (i) the macro-scale or wildland environment surrounding the inhabited area, (ii) the meso-scale or immediate vicinity of the urban or rural area, and (iii) the micro-scale or urbanized area with vegetation close to dwellings. The assessment of vegetation flammability and fuel modeling are fundamental at all of these scales [27]. While work at macro- and meso-scales entails fire risk assessment, fire exposure, and the elaboration of vulnerability maps, work at the micro-scale involves devising specific strategies for the placement of flammable materials, appropriate vegetation management to prevent potential damage to infrastructures, and careful consideration of the use of fire-resistant materials in infrastructures [27,28]. Furthermore, other important wildfire management aspects, such as governance, planning, and education, should also be carefully considered.

The Problem of Wildfires in the Central-South Regions of Chile

The central-south regions of Chile have suffered a high occurrence of large wildfires in recent times [19,29]. This surge in total burned area coincides with record temperatures registered in the central zone [19] and with pervasively heavy drought conditions that are also known to be closely associated with wildfire frequency [30]. This set of extreme climatic conditions has effectively extended the fire season, which, coupled with increased anthropogenic pressure on rural land, has contributed to a 143% increase in the average burned area [29,31,32]. Other primary factors contributing to increased fire risk and the unprecedented spread of fires through these central-south regions include landscape transformation driven by the expansion of human infrastructures on rural land, the establishment of large-scale forestry monocultures, the massive proliferation of exotic invasive species, and a lack of appropriate post-fire management practices [13,19,20,33].

Across Chile, the WUI area has increased significantly in the past few decades, with a total estimate of 900 km² [34], which assumes the WUI as the surface defined by the intersection of urban structures (with a buffer of 200 m) and vegetated wildland (with a buffer of 400 m) [35]. This increase has been favored by the Chilean national regulation, which promoted urban expansion on agricultural land, wetlands, and forests [36]. Such a policy resulted in the development of greatly needed housing facilities (i.e., housing states) but has also led to the unregulated, widespread expansion of isolated and vulnerable infrastructures. Unregulated WUI expansion constitutes a serious fire hazard given the disproportionately large share of wildfires originating near human settlements [19], increasing the fire probability and causing a growing number of structures to be destroyed and a larger area to be burned annually [33,37]. Ignition factors associated with an increase in fire risk in peri-urban sectors include poor waste management, the implementation of seasonal agricultural practices, land conditioning, sparks generated during construction and/or the implementation of agricultural practices, careless charcoal production, and malicious practices [Urrutia, pers. comm.]. Besides the direct impacts on human lives and ecosystem services, negative effects caused by wildfires in the WUI also include property loss, the disintegration of community networks, the emergence or exacerbation of social conflicts, and the loss of jobs and livelihoods [19].

Chile’s central-south regions urgently need improved wildfire resilience, given the current and projected fire trends. Therefore, the objective of this work was to contribute to improving fire resilience in the central-south regions of Chile through the provision of robust information on current wildfire management practices and comparisons with successful alternatives implemented in other fire-prone Mediterranean regions. To achieve this, we (i) launched a questionnaire to gather the views of national/regional experts and local stakeholders involved in wildfire management, (ii) conducted a comparative analysis of wildfire statistics and resource allocation in selected Mediterranean regions to identify resource constrains in wildfire management, and finally, (iii) presented successful wildfire management experiences garnered in other fire-prone Mediterranean regions, critically assessing those approaches that may be potentially adopted and/or promoted in the central-south regions of Chile to improve their fire resilience.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area

The study area focuses on the central-south Mediterranean regions of Chile, located between the parallels 35° and 38°, which include the Maule, Ñuble, Biobío, and Araucanía administrative regions. Over the past decade (2014–2023), about 1.5 × 10⁶ ha of land have been burned across Chile, with more than 85% of wildfires concentrated in the central-south regions, mostly between Valparaíso and Araucanía [29,32,34] (Figure 1 and Figure 2). Different ecosystem types and land uses coexist in these regions, including shrub and sclerophyllous forest, agricultural lands, and most critically, extensive areas of forestry plantations mainly consisting of Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus globulus [38]. Furthermore, one of the main WUI areas in Chile, Great Concepción (Biobío region), is located within the study area.

2.2. Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire employed to obtain information on current wildfire management in the central-south regions of Chile is a simplified version of that included in the OECD report “Taming Wildfires in the Context of Climate Change” [39], with a particular focus on wildfire prevention measures. The survey comprised a total of 12 questions distributed across three sections: “respondent demographics”, “current status and perception of the problem”, and “proposed solutions” (Supplementary Materials).

Data collection was carried out through an online distribution of the questionnaire between April 2023 and March 2024, based on a survey strategy described as snowball sampling [40]. The process was initiated by engaging key informants from forestry companies and public servants involved in wildfire management in central Chile. The criteria for inclusion in the survey considered the personal trajectory, the active participation in forest fire management in recent seasons, the development of activities in the Mediterranean regions of Chile, and the willingness to provide information through an online survey. Informants initially selected (forestry companies and CONAF officials) were consulted to gather referrals that served to identify other potential participants. These new potential participants were analyzed, those selected were contacted, and the survey was circulated. The resulting group of relevant experts surveyed was composed of professionals and technicians involved in wildfire prevention and firefighting, experts belonging to public services, private companies, universities, research centers, trade associations, neighborhood leaders, and representatives of civil society. A total of fifty-five surveys were correctly completed and proceeded to the analytical stage.

2.3. Wildfire Statistics and Management in Fire-Prone Mediterranean Regions

In addition to basic wildfire statistics, we collected information about investments in wildfire management in selected fire-prone Mediterranean regions. For this, we consulted national and international sources. Data from Chile was collected from the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF; www.conaf.cl, accessed on 29 January 2025), Europe (https://forest-fire.emergency.copernicus.eu/apps/effis.statistics/estimates, accessed on 29 January 2025), and California (https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact/statistics, accessed on 29 January 2025). Wildfire-prone area was defined as land covered by native forests, plantations, shrubs, and pastures. The central-south regions of Chile considered in this study include the administrative regions of Maule, Ñuble, Biobío, and Araucanía. In the case of California, the wildfire-prone area corresponds to that for which the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) is responsible. These are primarily privately owned wildlands that encompass about one-third of the state’s land area. Information on the annual public budget allocated to wildfire management in each region/country is derived from reports and country-specific sources: Chile (CONAF; www.conaf.cl and CORMA; www.corma.cl, both accessed on 3 February 2025), Spain (Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge; https://www.miteco.gob.es/en.html, accessed on 3 February 2025), Portugal (Agência para a Gestão Integrada de Fogos Rurais, I.P. (AGIF) https://www.agif.pt/pt/investimento-no-sgifr, accessed on 3 February 2025), Greece (WWF 2019 report (http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf__the_mediterranean_burns_2019_eng_final.pdf, accessed on 3 February 2025) and [39]), and California (https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2022/4495/wildfire-forest-resilience-012622.pdf, accessed on 3 February 2025). In all cases, data were normalized using GDP per capita to provide a more accurate vision of national investments.

3. Results

3.1. Questionnaire Results

Most respondents (94.6%) fell within the age range of 26 to 65 years, with 76.4% of them being male. Although these percentages seem to be unbalanced, these are within the expected range considering the composition of the sector in the country [41,42]. In terms of professional training and occupation, 83.6% had higher education (university degree and postgraduate), while the remainder had completed technical training and high school education (16.3%). Occupationally, 49.1% were affiliated with large and medium-sized forestry companies, 34.5% with public services related to forestry and farming, disaster prevention services, and municipal administration, 10.9% with academia (main universities in the region), and the remainder were affiliated with trade organizations, foundations, and civil society. A large majority of the respondents (96%) were based in the Mediterranean area of Chile, primarily in the Biobío Region.

Concerning the perception of wildfires, 96.4% of the participants indicated a significant increase in wildfire-related impacts in their place of residence. The respondents identified the lack of education and awareness (74.5%), the expansion of infrastructure/housing in the rural landscape (52.7%), the effects of climate change (50.9%), and the lack of land management (38.2%) as the most important factors contributing to wildfire occurrence (Figure 3).

Regarding wildfire management, a substantial proportion of the expert panel (40%) suggested that resource distribution should prioritize greater investment in prevention or at least maintain the same level of investment in prevention and firefighting/extinguishing tasks (36.4%; Figure 4). Only 7.3% of respondents advocated for mainly allocating resources to firefighting and extinction tasks. Notably, there was a unanimous consensus among the expert panel (100%) regarding the need to embrace the problem of wildfires in the WUI.

Finally, regarding the open question about proposing new actions or methods for passive firefighting and landscape management proposed in the questionnaire, responses were categorized into thematic blocks based on frequency (

Table 1. Main recommended proposals provided by the expert group for passive forest firefighting actions arranged in preferential order.

Actions or Methodologies Proposed by the Group of Experts	Relevance (%)
Fuel management: preventive silviculture, management, reduction and modification of fuels, mechanized firebreaks and fuel breaks, establishment of preventive firebreaks planned according to topography and available fuel. Controlled/prescribed burning to reduce combustible material.	22
Education and awareness-raising: education and empowerment of communities for fire prevention, prevention education from early childhood, preventive talks in schools and communities, educational workshops on forest fires, mass educational actions, and community prevention programs.	19
Governance and community participation: generate response capacity in the most at-risk communities, promote neighborhood groups to prevent and detect fires, community prevention network, community participation in planning and prevention.	16
Planning and land-use planning: strategic land-use planning, requiring municipalities to comply with land-use planning and risk management instruments, use of wetlands and ravine areas as firebreaks, construction of firebreaks through sports fields or multi-pitches, reduction in tree densities in forestry plantations within WUIs.	16
Coordination and cooperation: effective coordination and collaboration between different actors, joint work between municipalities, communities, private and CONAF, work with communities, neighborhood councils and municipalities, prevention network of public and private entities.	16
Legislation and vigilance: stricter laws and higher penalties for those who cause fires, obligation by law to establish firebreaks according to the extension of the plantations, patrolling and vigilance to reduce or avoid intentionality.	10
Other techniques and specific measures: application of chemical firebreaks, implementation of strategic water accumulators.	1

). Recommendations related to “Fuel Management” (22%) and Education and Awareness” (19%) were the most frequently mentioned, followed by activities related to “Governance and Community Participation”, “Planning and Land Management”, and “Coordination and Cooperation”, each with 16% of the preferences. Rural abandonment was not mentioned as a major factor in their perception of the increase in wildfires.

Concerning the distribution of resources for wildfire management, experts advocate for prioritizing prevention measures over firefighting and extinction or, at the very least, increasing the importance of prevention. This perspective contrasts sharply with the prevailing practices whereby monetary resources are mainly directed toward firefighting and extinction, with comparatively small amounts allocated to education and prevention, a situation that is common in many Mediterranean regions [13,18]. The main actions proposed by the expert group were related to fuel management, with emphasis on the need to enhance community education and awareness, foster community governance and participation, and prioritize landscape management and land-use planning, particularly in the WUI.

3.2. Wildfire Statistics and Management Budgets in Fire-Prone Mediterranean Regions

Wildfire statistics and management budgets for Chile and selected Mediterranean regions were collected and compared (

Table 2. Information on wildfire statistics and public budget assigned to wildfire management in Chile and selected fire-prone Mediterranean countries/regions.

	Chile-National {Central-South Chile}	Spain	Portugal	Greece	California (USA)
Total area (Mha)	75.7 {9.9}	50.6	9.1	13.0	42.4
Wildfire-prone area (Mha) 2	31.5 [{5.9}]	28.8	5.4	6.8	12.5
Average area burned yearly (ha) 2006–2023 (California 2019–2023)	116,395 {82,229}	81,623	93,731	50,783	519,858
Wildfire-prone area affected yearly (%)	0.4 [1.4]	0.3	1.7	0.7	4.2
Annual public budget allocated to wildfire management ($) 1	157M/289M 2	936M	483M	297M	3700M
Fire suppression measures ($)	150M/253M 2 (88% 2)	77% 3	221M (46%)	230M (77%)	2950M (80%)
Prevention measures ($)	7M/36M 2 (12% 2)	23% 3	262M (54%)	67M (23%)	750M (20%)
GDP per capita ($ per capita)	16,370	35,790	29,340	24,340	104,920
Investment in wildfire management in wildfire-prone areas ($ ha−1)	9	33	89	44	296
Investment in wildfire management normalized using GDP per capita (respect to that of Chile)	9	15	50	29	46

¹ Information on the annual public budget allocated to wildfire management in each region/country is discussed in the main text. ² Figures relate to public and private funding considered together. ³ The relative contribution for fire suppression and prevention activities presented here represents estimates from the Spanish Official School of Forestry Engineers between 2008 and 2017, which include state and regional investments. To ease comparisons in wildfire management budgets between countries, Chilean pesos (CLP) are converted to US$ according to 1000 CLP = 1 US$. Likewise, Euros are considered to match US$ (i.e., 1€ = 1$). Data on GDP per capita are sourced from the International Monetary Fund (2024) https://www.imf.org/en/Home, accessed on 3 February 2025. In the case of California, the information is from the United States Census Bureau (2024), accessed on 3 February 2025. See Section 2.3 for more information on data sources.

and references therein). There was broad heterogeneity in wildfire-prone areas between regions, but some patterns in the annual area burned can be identified. In Chile, an average of 0.4% of these areas burned annually from 2006 to 2023, rising to 1.4% in the central-south regions. This compares to 1.7% in Portugal but is five times higher than in Spain and double that of Greece. On the higher end, the proportion of fire-prone area burned every year in California is triple that of the central south regions of Chile.

To address the multifaceted challenges posed by wildfires, governments provide funding for wildfire management programs (Table 2). Chile’s public funding for 2024–2025 was ~US$157M, nearly matched by the $132M provided by private forestry companies. In Spain, wildfire budgets are decentralized, with autonomous regions managing most resources. The reported annual budget in Spain is a total estimate for 2022 using data compiled from 16 of the 17 autonomous regions, and from the National Government, which accounts for about 9% of the national wildfire budget. The reported annual budget for Portugal corresponds to 2023 and amounts to ~US$483M. The wildfire management budget in Greece is estimated to be ~US$297M. This figure has been estimated using available data for 2018 and has been updated for 2021 following the announced three-year fire prevention plan (2019–2021) funded with a total of 140 million Euros [39]. California’s wildfire budget for the 2021–2022 season is ~US$3700M and does not include the recently introduced Wildfire Resilience package.

In terms of specific investment in wildfire-prone areas ($ per hectare), Chile invests ~$9 ha⁻¹ in wildfire management, significantly less than California ($296 ha⁻¹), Spain ($33 ha⁻¹), Portugal ($33 ha⁻¹), Italy ($89 ha⁻¹), and Greece ($44 ha⁻¹). These disparities underscore the need for context-specific comparisons, as socioeconomic realities and wildfire impacts vary. Normalizing investments by GDP per capita provides a more accurate vision, which further highlights Chile’s underinvestment, with values of 9$ ha⁻¹, in comparison with 46, 15, 50, and 29$ ha⁻¹ for California, Spain, Portugal, and Greece, respectively.

4. Discussion

4.1. Expert Perception of Wildfires in the Central-South Regions of Chile

The survey results confirmed a common perception about the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in the central-south regions of Chile [37,43], which is in line with recent findings in other Mediterranean regions [19]. Key elements, such as a lack of education and awareness, the expansion of unregulated human activity in rural areas, and insufficient and inadequate planning and landscape management, were identified as the most relevant factors contributing to this increase. It is worth noting that none of the respondents mentioned rural abandonment as a major factor behind their perception of wildfire increase. This is in stark contrast with a view strongly shared across many European Mediterranean regions that undoubtedly links the increase in wildfires with the massive rural migrations that started in the 1940s and intensified over the following decades. Such an extensive rural exodus has left vast tracts of former agricultural land prone to significant vegetation encroachment [44], thus resulting in the relatively homogeneous landscapes with heavy fuel loads that can be observed nowadays [43]. The reason for such a mismatch in perceptions between the two continents might have to do with differences in land tenure. While land tenure in Europe has predominantly been in the hands of multiple small households, each with their own management preferences, larger farmland holdings are much more common in South America [45]. Compared to small households, large farmlands usually have access to greater financial resources and are usually tended by a mixture of local and externally sourced workforces, making them less prone to suffering from rural abandonment. Furthermore, in central-south Chile, many of these abandoned agricultural lands have been afforested with exotic species to develop commercial forestry, which may affect the public perception of land abandonment and its relationship with wildfires.

Concerning the distribution of resources for wildfire management, local experts advocate for prioritizing prevention measures over firefighting and extinction or, at the very least, increasing their significance. This perspective contrasts sharply with the prevailing current practices, where monetary efforts are mainly directed toward firefighting and extinction measures, with a comparatively limited budget allocated to education and prevention, a situation that is common in many Mediterranean regions [13,18]. The main actions proposed by the expert group are related to fuel management, emphasizing the need to enhance community education and awareness, foster community governance and participation, and prioritize landscape management and land-use planning, particularly in the WUI.

4.2. Is It Really Necessary to Invest More in Wildfire Prevention in Chile?

Historically, wildfire management in Mediterranean regions has relied on fire suppression, leading to fuel accumulation and increased wildfire risks and impacts [13]. A key aspect for the management and prevention of wildfires is undoubtedly the economic capacity to be able to implement or maintain prevention strategies. However, evidence shows that strategic prevention offsets suppression and restoration costs, not to mention impacts on ecosystems, human health, and lives [39,46]. Although Chile stands out in the region for its strong investment and extinguishing capacity, a low level of investment in wildfire prevention is clearly observed compared to other fire-prone Mediterranean regions/countries. Chile allocated 12% of its 2024–2025 budget to prevention, compared to 20–54% in other Mediterranean regions (Table 2). Furthermore, the relative allocation of resources to each category not only varies between regions but also over time. Indeed, the extreme wildfires suffered by most Mediterranean regions in recent years have prompted a shift in wildfire resource allocation [39]. The case of Portugal exemplifies this trend well. In 2017, only 20% of wildfire management funding was allocated to prevention, but the extreme wildfires of that year significantly boosted the total wildfire budget, particularly the share dedicated to prevention measures, which reached 65% in 2021 and 54% in 2023 [39]. Other Mediterranean countries like Greece substantially increased funding in wildfire prevention thanks to support from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility and national funding efforts. As a result, the country launched the AntiNero wildfire prevention programme in 2022. This 4-year initiative aimed to enhance the management of fuel loads in wildfire-prone regions, also involving the creation of fuel mosaic areas and the development of forest fire protection plans [44]. California is another illustrative example of a Mediterranean climate region where significant financial resources have been devoted to fire prevention in recent years. California authorities have done so through the Early Action Package for Wildfire Resilience to improve forest health and make communities more resilient to future wildfires, which is in addition to substantial funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2022/4495/wildfire-forest-resilience-012622.pdf, accessed on 16 March 2025).

Comparative analysis with Mediterranean areas/countries suggests that Chile must increase financial resources for wildfire prevention. Although prevention requires financial assets, economic investments are offset in the long term. Based on expert recommendations, the following sections will critically discuss different measures to enhance wildfire resilience in Mediterranean environments, with the potential to be applied in central-south Chile.

4.3. Preventive Measures to Improve Wildfire Resilience in Mediterranean Regions

Different techniques, methods, and programs aimed at reducing or mitigating the effects of wildfires across Mediterranean regions have been implemented with relative success at micro-, meso-, and macro-scales [47]. However, there is no clear roadmap or systematic formula for eliminating the potential threat of wildfires. Based on the results of the survey and the experience acquired in other fire-prone Mediterranean regions, we propose four categories of preventive measures to improve wildfire resilience in central-south Chile (Figure 5), which may complement ongoing fire suppression and extinguishing efforts. These categories are (a) fuel management, (b) governance and community participation, (c) territorial management, planning, and socioeconomic evaluation, and (d) education and awareness. We critically discuss some of these approaches that are either already implemented or could potentially be adopted in the central-south regions of Chile. Moreover, some of the methodologies described below, such as green firebreaks, prescribed burns, community interventions, or Fire-Smart management, are particularly interesting as they are considered nature-based solutions [18].

4.3.1. Fuel Management

The spread and intensity of wildfires rely on three basic components: (i) meteorological conditions (e.g., wind, humidity, and temperature); (ii) topography (e.g., slope, aspect, and ruggedness); and (iii) landscape characteristics (e.g., fuel amount, structure, and connectivity). Mitigation efforts should primarily target the landscape component, as fuel-related variables can be managed. Reducing fuel load and continuity is critical to minimizing wildfire occurrence and propagation in rural landscapes [48,49]. Interventions that can serve to achieve this goal include biomass extraction, targeted grazing in fire-breaking areas, the adoption of green firewalls and pyro-gardening, or the use of prescribed fire.

- Biomass extraction. Significantly reducing shrub and tree biomass has the potential to produce changes in fuel structure and loading, leading to a reduction in fire risk [50]. However, effective risk reduction requires managing both tree and shrub strata at the landscape level [51]. In central-south Chile, exotic forest plantations create rather large spatial continuities unsuitable for wildfire prevention. To reverse the situation, landscape fragmentation, increased distances between plantations, and asynchronicity in logging operations are recommended [52]. However, following the 2017 “Las Máquinas” wildfire (>180,000 ha affected), large areas were reforested with Pinus radiata in just a few years, creating a homogeneous fuel mosaic that increases the risk of future massive wildfires [37].

The extraction of residual biomass during forestry management, through thinning or pruning, may help preventing the spread of wildfires, as it reduces overall fuel load and minimizes the likelihood of massively destructive crown fires [51]. The latter is because forestry operations can target ladder fuels to prevent fires from climbing up from the landscape or forest floor into the tree canopy. Using residual biomass for bioenergy offers dual benefits: reducing fire risk and generating energy. Compared with recent decades, when the use of residual biomass was limited by technical and economic constraints [51], recent technological advances and growing demand are making this approach more viable [53,54]. For instance, the Biobiopellets project in Chile (https://biobiopellets.ucsc.cl/ accessed on 12 January 2025) has recently investigated the potential of using invasive woody species for the production of pellets. This work demonstrates that this biomass represents an adequate feedstock source for pellet/biofuel production and that its extraction can effectively reduce the virulence of wildfires in WUI areas [53]. However, fuel reduction through biomass extraction is not a risk-free intervention, as it bears operational costs, may induce changes in habitat structure or soil compaction, and promotes the undesirable proliferation of invasive species. In this sense, management interventions such as biomass extraction, fuel breaks, or prescribed fires (discussed below) may increase ecosystem vulnerability to alien plant invasions [55].

- Targeted grazing. Targeted grazing reduces biomass accumulation in areas designated as firebreaks, extends clearing intervals, and promotes heterogeneous landscapes [56,57]. This approach aligns societal needs (food production) with environmental goals (fire risk reduction). Targeted grazing has been successfully applied in Mediterranean countries for decades. In France, the “Réseau Coupures de Combustible” program integrates preventive grazing into territorial planning [58]. Combining mechanical clearing and grazing served to control vegetation [58,59], reduce vegetation removal costs by 36.5%, and lower intervention frequency [60]. In Spain, initiatives like the Network of Pasture-Firebreak Areas of Andalusia (RAPCA) and “ramats de foc” (https://www.ramatsdefoc.org/en/, accessed on 2 February 2025) use livestock to control understory vegetation in fire-prone areas. Besides fuel reduction and weed control, using livestock in preventive tasks increases forest income, adds meat production to wood-derived incomes, reduces the ecological footprint, improves landscape features, ameliorates forest accessibility, and increases mycological production [56,60]. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis identified biomass extraction and grazing as key wildfire prevention strategies [61]. While Chile has seen a few localized attempts (e.g., goat grazing in Biobío, https://atolltimes.mv/post/world/3663, accessed on 2 February 2025), targeted grazing is not widely used across the country. Grazing has been promoted as sustainable management to support the rural sector through development programs of the Agricultural Development Institute (INDAP). The Transition to Sustainable Agriculture Program (TAS) seeks to increase the development of agricultural systems based on sustainable management and production practices, with directed grazing being a tool that combines peasant livestock farming with the management of wildfire risks in rural territories (https://www.indap.gob.cl/plataforma-de-servicios/transicion-la-agricultura-sostenible-tas, accessed on 2 February 2025). However, its widespread adoption is complex, and it likely requires economic incentives, training, and effective communication.

- Green firewalls and pyro-gardening. Green firebreaks, composed of perennial trees and shrubs, constitute a fuel management technique that limits fire spread and requires less maintenance than traditional firebreaks. They may also generate valuable products and enhance environmental biodiversity by providing food, habitat, and dispersal opportunities for native fauna [62,63]. Species selection must consider ecological (e.g., low flammability and biodiversity promotion), silvicultural (e.g., drought or pest resistance and the high growth rate), and economic (e.g., wood/non-wood product value) factors [63]. Green firebreaks, especially those composed of native species, could be integral to revegetation and “fire resistance” strategies in landscapes where natural succession may be impeded, such as those present in post-fire scenarios [62]. In central-south Chile, some forestry companies have implemented small-scale green firebreaks (http://www.cmpc.com/en/the-green-firebreak-initiative-provides-fire-protection-and-animal-fodder, accessed on 6 February 2025). However, wider adoption is hindered by the limited availability of suitable, adapted plant material (most nurseries are focused on ornamental and commercial forestry species) and a lack of trained personnel, limitations that have been previously pointed out [64,65,66]. Pyro-gardening is a micro-scale approach that involves designing, planning, and managing fire-adapted vegetation for WUI areas [28,67,68]. It requires careful evaluation of plant characteristics, the micro-scale environment, fuel continuity, and maintenance needs [67,68]. Its broader implementation is hampered by the same issues reported for green firewalls.

- Prescribed fires. Prescribed burning (PB) is intended to reduce fuel load and mitigate the severe impacts of catastrophic wildfires. Several studies indicate the potential benefits of fuel management by using PB. However, it is important to distinguish between fire technically applied under good practices following legal regulations and fire used in “a traditional way”, which implies a far higher risk, particularly under the current climatic conditions and landscape characteristics. PB promotes ecological processes in fire-adapted or fire-prone ecosystems, and it is an appealing—but often controversial—tool in contemporary forest management. While traditional fire use is declining in Chile due to perceived risks, PB is gaining recognition in Mediterranean Europe for its ecological and fire management benefits [69,70,71]. Although research has gained interest, the technical use of PB is still limited and mainly carried out by public authorities at the local level and not implemented at the national or regional level [69]. In Chile, PB is limited to agricultural residue burning and faces challenges such as social rejection, fragmented land ownership, inadequate regulations, and insufficient funding [70]. Research and community involvement are essential to making PB a socially acceptable tool in central-south Chile.

4.3.2. Governance and Community Participation in Fire Management

Recent guidelines on wildfire prevention in the Mediterranean region emphasize the need for a governance model addressing the systemic causes of wildfire risk [47]. These guidelines advocate for integrating diverse adaptation and risk reduction strategies into national forest programs and cross-sectoral policies to create fire-resilient landscapes. In Chile, wildfire management involves collaboration between the public and private sectors. CONAF leads public efforts focusing on fire prevention, management, and fire control across public lands, national parks and reserves, and WUIs [72]. Private efforts led by forestry companies under CORMA (The Chilean Timber Corporation) concentrate on wildfire prevention, combating, and mitigation. While public–private collaboration is positive, a sound governance strategy for wildfire prevention should also promote public participation and seek effective interaction with stakeholders, as well as more decisive collaboration across organizational levels, territorial scales, and networks [47]. Also, the elimination of border/jurisdictional barriers through instruments such as polycentric governance systems, characterized by the coordinating operation of multiple and diverse actors at different scales under an overarching set of rules, served to address wildfire risk in a multi-ownership landscape scenario in the western US [73].

Several programs aim to improve wildfire resilience in Chile. Since 2015, CONAF’s Communities Prepared for Wildfires program has strengthened community participation by improving housing infrastructure, rapid response capabilities, and community preparation [33]. Similarly, private forestry companies participate in the Community Prevention Network, implementing the Firewise program (adapted from the US model, https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/firewise-usa accessed on 10 November 2024) in 17 priority sectors across central-south Chilean regions. These sectors are selected collaboratively with municipalities, ONEMI, CONAF, firefighters, CORMA, and neighborhood councils [74,75]. In central-south Chile, particularly in the Maule, Ñuble, and Bíobío regions, sectoral committees (mesas sectoriales) play a crucial role in WUI fire prevention. These committees, comprising government agencies like CONAF and the Ministry of Agriculture, local authorities, forestry companies, and community groups, coordinate inter-institutional strategies, develop fire prevention plans (including risk area identification, firebreaks, and fuel management), promote sustainable community practices, provide training, raise awareness campaigns, and conduct monitoring using technology and patrols for early fire detection. During emergencies, sectoral committees coordinate resources from entities like the military and local firefighting brigades and oversee post-fire recovery efforts, which include temporary housing, financial assistance, and infrastructure reconstruction. However, challenges remain, including increasing housing in rural areas, climate change, and limited resources, which can hamper fire prevention and response efforts. Future improvements should enhance technological capacities for monitoring, promote sustainable land management practices, and strengthen programs like the “Community Prevention Network” (Red de Prevención Comunitaria; https://reddeprevencioncomunitaria.cl/ accessed on 10 November 2024) or the Forest Fire Prevention in Interface Zones of the Biobío Region” (Prevención de incendios forestales en zonas de interfaz de la región del Biobío).

Internationally, the EU Horizon 2020-funded SAFERS project (https://safers-project.eu/, accessed on 10 November 2024) exemplifies innovative wildfire management by integrating diverse data (Copernicus/GEOSS remote sensing, fire sensors, topography, weather forecasts, and social media) processed via AI. Its platform generates risk maps, enables early detection, predicts spread, assesses impacts, and suggests best practices across emergency phases (prevention, response, and restoration), thus supporting decision making and enhancing community resilience.

4.3.3. Territorial Management, Landscape Planning and Socioeconomic Evaluation

Wildfires are intricately linked to broader environmental and societal challenges. Thus, truly effective wildfire prevention schemes should be integrated into climate change adaptation strategies and sectoral plans (e.g., forestry, agriculture, and urban planning) [47]. Wildfire resilience requires risk mitigation across multiple domains, with a key focus on well-funded, specifically designed community programs for emergency preparedness, critical infrastructure protection, and less flammable land management [76].

Given that 99% of Chile’s wildfires are human-caused, understanding fire–human community relationships and shifting from fire suppression to coexistence and resilience is crucial [15,18,76]. Proactive management should prioritize fuel management for achieving more fire-resistant landscapes, while ensuring ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation [15,16,18,70,77]. Effective fire management schemes require the integration of the territory’s social, economic, and ecological components (natural resources, infrastructure, human settlements, land use and changes in use, lifestyles, governance, climate, landscape, etc.) through participatory actions [15,47]. Addressing the multidimensional nature of fires necessitates considering territorial management, resilient landscape design via modeling, and influential socioeconomic factors to reduce wildfire incidence.

(a) Territorial management. Wildfire regulatory frameworks vary across Mediterranean-climate regions, hindering the development of universal guidelines for Chile. Existing land-use planning instruments related to wildfire prevention in Chile are outdated and lack robust preventive measures for escalating wildfire threat and applying wildfire risk reduction measures [75,78]. Effective urban planning is of particular importance for building wildfire-resilient communities as it facilitates active responses that can be classified in two major groups: (i) resistance and impact avoidance and (ii) facilitating responses [79].

A key challenge for proper territorial management is the lack of explicit consideration of WUI areas in fire prevention strategies [11,19,52,75]. However, the dramatic 2017 wildfire season stimulated national debates on land use, environmental factors causing wildfires, and fire prevention [19,29,75], leading to the proposed “Forest and Rural Fire Law” (Ley de Incendios Forestales y Rurales), which is pending final approval. This law proposes a preventive, coordinated approach based on technical criteria and local adaptation, prioritizing areas with a high level of fire threat. The regulation includes the obligation to create firebreaks and establish urban–rural interface zones (in both large cities and rural municipalities), empowering communal and intercommunal regulatory plans. Furthermore, land-use changes following wildfire events will be limited to promote ecosystem restoration over economic speculation. However, enforcement remains weak due to competing priorities like road maintenance, basic services, crime control, and waste management, particularly evidenced in rural dumps and poorly planned, densely populated hills.

Chile’s regulatory framework for rural land subdivision, including Decree Law 3.516, lacks robust urban planning and building standards in WUIs. The current fire-resistant construction standards focus on indoor fires rather than external wildfire threats, leaving many dwellings vulnerable due to flammable materials used for construction and irregular housing expansions [80,81]. Besides housing materials and structures, lax enforcement of regulations also extends to the expansion of irregular housing throughout the territory [82]. The ‘parcelas de agrado’ scheme, allowing small rural allotments where housing is permitted for recreational, residential, or leisure activities (plots over 0.5 hectares), exacerbates planning challenges, particularly post-COVID-19, as the demand for rural housing surged. The lack of planning and sheer plot scale make it almost impossible for planners and firefighters to establish proper fire prevention schemes. Recent efforts to suspend rural property subdivision certifications by the Ministry of Agriculture and SAG aim to address these issues, but legal debates persist.

(b) Landscape modeling. A landscape-based wildfire risk-reduction strategy, termed Fire-Smart (FS) management, represents “an integrated approach based primarily on fuel treatments through which the socioeconomic impacts of fire are minimized while its ecological benefits are maximized” [15,77]. FS management can be considered a nature-based solution to design sustainable, effective, and equitable approaches in fire-prone regions [18]. The FirESmart project (https://firesmartproject.wordpress.com/about/, accessed on 26 March 2025) combines dynamic landscape modeling to simulate fire processes, vegetation succession, and post-fire recovery, also evaluating fire suppression scenarios to mitigate fire-related damage. The analysis also includes a cost–benefit evaluation, as well as the estimation of the impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services (carbon sequestration, water quality regulation, soil erosion, and biomass production). These models include feasibility and dissemination plans so that the results can be transferred and potentially adopted.

Despite the dearth of large-scale fire-resilient initiatives in Chile, the project “Science and innovation to assess the impacts of wildfires on ecosystems of central-southern Chile and generate proposals for fire-resilient landscapes based on different environmental change scenarios” is currently using landscape modeling to reduce fire incidence and achieve more resilient landscapes and communities (ANID, https://anid.cl/concursos/concurso-desafios-para-la-recuperacion-post-incendios-forestales/, accessed on 26 March 2025). This recent initiative mainly focuses on the development of a landscape-scale modeling framework to evaluate different Fire-Smart management scenarios and generate proposals for fire-resilient landscapes.

(c) Socioeconomic evaluation and diagnostic tools. Quantifying the human component of fire risk is crucial but challenging, mainly due to difficulties in the estimation of behavioral aspects. Nonetheless, insightful approximations can be obtained by analyzing socioeconomic indicators, such as poverty and social vulnerability, that directly or indirectly influence fire occurrence [11]. In Chile, models estimating fire risk and behavior exist [83,84,85], but WUI fires require specialized analyses due to their complexity [86]. Integrating quantitative and qualitative indices can provide a comprehensive understanding of the problem, enabling targeted interventions [86]. In this respect, it is important to develop physical vulnerability indexes at the local level to detect possible weaknesses at the WUI level. For instance, in central Chile, a study combining field surveys, remote sensing, and GIS analyses identified correlations between fire damage probability and factors like dwelling separation and vegetation proximity [87]. However, technical approaches alone are insufficient; community participation is vital for designing and implementing effective preventive actions [88]. Unfortunately, social aspects are usually neglected when considering landscape vulnerability.

Social vulnerability exacerbates wildfire risks, as seen in the Biobío region, where municipalities with high wildfire incidence also face multidimensional poverty (e.g., deficiencies in education, health, and housing). The correlation between wildfire occurrence and social vulnerability is repeatedly observed in regions with a comparatively high wildfire incidence ([89], Urrutia, pers. Comm). Socioeconomic indices considering multiple dimensions of social vulnerability, demographic and economic structure, education, and social dependency, such as those developed for NW Spain, can help to identify high-risk areas and allocate resources effectively [90]. These indices should be integrated into communal planning, fostering collaboration among stakeholders to enhance wildfire resilience.

4.3.4. Educational and Training Tools to Increase Public Awareness and Prevent Wildfires

Community involvement and education are essential for adapting to evolving wildfire risks. Education and awareness constitute pivotal measures for fire prevention, particularly in the WUI. Critical activities for wildfire prevention include educational institutions, community leader training, and public outreach programs. Effective outreach programs in the WUI should promote information dissemination, two-way communication between organizations and society, capacity-building, and education [14].

Various educational and training tools have been successfully implemented in Mediterranean countries. The EduFire Toolkit makes use of project-based learning methodology to develop multidisciplinary educational resources for understanding wildfire risks and their relationship with climate change (https://www.paucostafoundation.org/proyectos/edufire/, accessed on 12 November 2024). The project targets secondary students, teachers, educators, and communities in Portugal, Spain, and Ireland. Another available tool is Service-Learning (S-L), an educational approach combining academic learning and community service, addressing real-world problems while earning academic credits [91,92,93]. S-L benefits from the inclusion of diverse social agents and the consideration of local and traditional ecological knowledge (LEK, TEK), which are also crucial in other disciplines such as ecological restoration [94]. Although primarily used in social sciences, S-L has great potential in wildfire prevention and ecological restoration [95,96]. For instance, the “Plantando Cara al Fuego” project and its international extension “Facing Fire” (Erasmus+ program, https://www.plantandocaraalfuego.org/, accessed on 12 November 2024) applied S-L in wildfire management across Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece. This Spanish initiative involved professionals from diverse scientific and educational fields collaborating with different social agents to develop projects addressing prescribed burning, WUI fuel management, post-fire restoration, and public wildfire awareness [96].

In Chile, Law 19.300 recognizes environmental education as a permanent, interdisciplinary process for fostering the harmonious coexistence between people and their environment. Initiatives like the nationwide call for projects “Environmental Education for the Prevention of Wildfires and Protection of Biodiversity” highlight the importance of public education and social engagement to address misconceptions and foster community support. Understanding local fire perceptions is crucial for improving prevention plans and policies at the local and national levels [47]. However, such studies are scarce in Chile, and for many vulnerable communities, fire risk is not a probability but something inevitable [88]. While Chile has adopted S-L in areas like social integration, health, and education [97], its application to environmental issues, such as wildfire prevention, is limited. Despite this, there is growing momentum for educational innovation, particularly in higher education (Network for Innovation and Educational transformation, RITE in Spanish), where S-L could play a transformative role in addressing wildfire challenges.

5. Conclusions

Both the views of local experts and our own critical assessment of wildfire resilience in Mediterranean regions reveal that in the central-south regions of Chile, there is an urgent need to dramatically increase wildfire prevention measures and better integration of rural planning that also meets social demands. Official data reveal that Chile’s investment in wildfire prevention is still low in comparison with other Mediterranean countries/regions with similar wildfire problems. While the number of relevant local experts who took part in the survey may somewhat limit the scope of the extracted conclusions, there was an obviously broad consensus about managing biomass to reduce fuel loads and vegetation continuity to enhance landscape resilience to wildfires. While biomass extraction is extensively used, the application of alternative nature-based solutions for fuel management, such as targeted grazing and prescribed fires, also shows great potential and should be actively explored. Other management tools that may have significant effects on wildfire occurrence and propagation include landscape planning and territorial management through specific regulatory frameworks. However, it is not realistic to propose idealized landscape designs that maximize wildfire resilience with little consideration for the current realities existing across this vast and complex territory. Some of the recommended actions also require a certain level of economic investment, which is difficult to support considering current investment levels. Others, in contrast, could be more easily implemented. We therefore advocate Fire-Smart (FS) management to increase wildfire resilience as it represents an integrated approach, based primarily on fuel treatment, combined with modeling, simulation, and evaluation scenarios. Furthermore, socioeconomic indices of vulnerability and collaborative wildfire risk assessment should be incorporated in communal territorial planning, as this would improve resource allocation. Encouraging cooperation between relevant stakeholders is key in fire prevention schemes. Indeed, engaging local communities through education and outreach is essential for addressing misinformation and fostering social support. Both the survey findings and the comparative analysis between Chile and other Mediterranean regions complement ongoing local efforts and offer a practical guide for stakeholders in wildfire management and prevention that is particularly relevant to the Chilean reality and to other regions with similar characteristics.