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An ancient tradition could be the answer to a contemporary problem: wildfires, which are also frequent again on a large scale in Europe this summer. Because of the heat and drought, fire can spread quickly to more and more nature reserves. In Australia, where this problem has existed for years, the indigenous community is now drawing attention to their way of managing forests.
Centuries ago, they actually managed to fight large fires by lighting smaller fires themselves. And with large parts of Australia’s wildlife blazing each summer, the practice of this tradition could change a lot.
According to the Australian Science Institute CSIRO, dry shrubs and grass, combined with harsh weather, lead to intense bushfires. And by allowing this grass and shrubs to burn in a controlled manner, uncontrolled fire can spread less. A style that the Aboriginal community has been drawing attention to for years.
Aboriginal cultural burn
Not only in Australia will cultural burn I looked to prevent large forest fires. Scientists in the United States are also looking at how indigenous peoples dealt with wildfires. They had a similar method there.
At the beginning of this year, a new law was passed in the United States in favor of cultural burn. People using controlled fires as firefighting can no longer be held liable for damage if the fire gets out of control. In this way, the application threshold of the method has become much lower.
In Europe, fire is sometimes fought with fire, but this original method has not yet been widely used.
