ESR15 Project

Increasingly extreme wildfires bring about disaster and socio-environmental injustices. Hence, wildfire experts are calling for different ways to deal with and relate to wildfires. In particular, communicating about wildfires plays a critical role in accompanying such a change. However, Wildfire Risk Communication largely takes place in top-down, simplistic, and unidirectional ways, with experts telling society what these should (not) do for wildfire prevention and preparedness.

Thus, we need to move beyond focussing only on wildfire risk, and instead acknowledge wildfires as long-term, complex processes that inherently form part of our socio-environmental systems. This understanding calls for communicating about wildfires in more inclusive, locally situated, and participatory ways. One example of this are Community-led Wildfire initiatives. Currently understudied, these initiatives hold great potential to redefine wildfire communication practice and theory at large.

Present research focusses on the Pego Viu association, that emerged as a social response to the 2015 Vall d’Ebo wildfire, and was also deeply affected by the 2022 wildfire in the same region. Through an in-depth case study with Pego Viu, using qualitative research methods like interviews, participant observation, and focus groups, we can gain key insights. For instance, that communication on wildfires goes far beyond just wildfire prevention and preparedness, engaging instead in root causes of extreme wildfires at the local level; community-led initiatives respond to local realities that Risk Communication leaves unaddressed; and, while these initiatives commonly emerge after impactful wildfires, only few perdure over time, making it ongoing support for such initiatives essential, e.g. through policy support and fostering collaboration with other wildfire actors in the territory.

Keywords: community-led wildfire initiatives; bottom-up action; root causes of wildfire; local empowerment; wildfire communication; local and traditional knowledges.

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