Educate to Prevent: Best Practices of University Service in Wildfire Prevention within the Framework of the ‘Facing the Fire’ Project (2020-2025)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.6892Keywords:
Service-Learning, social awareness, forest fires, mitigation, citizen participationAbstract
In recent decades, problems associated with forest fires have intensified, particularly in the Mediterranean Basin, posing a serious threat to ecosystems and human populations. Although their frequency has decreased, wildfires have become more intense and severe, often exceeding suppression capacity, as evidenced by the emergence of sixth-generation fires on the Iberian Peninsula. Multiple factors contribute to this situation, including socio-economic dynamics (depopulation, land-use change), inadequate forest management, insufficient public policies, and climate change—further exacerbated by misinformation and media sensationalism.
Within this socio-environmental context, and given the need for high-quality information, it is essential to strengthen the capacity of future specialists in prevention and restoration through a variety of strategies: on the one hand, improving forest management in order to create stands that hinder the spread of wildfires and enhance post-fire regeneration; and on the other hand, addressing ignition sources by raising public awareness of their underlying causes.
The Plantando Cara al Fuego (PCF) initiative aims to improve environmental awareness and foster citizen participation in combating forest fires by involving the public in projects that apply academic knowledge to community needs. To this end, PCF develops educational innovation projects based on the Service-Learning (S-L) pedagogical approach, which integrates university education with forest-fire prevention and restoration efforts. The aim of this study is to compile experiences carried out between 2020 and 2025 in different Spanish regions, in which university students from various degree programmes have implemented S-L projects to address real community challenges related to forest fires through the design and development of activities in collaboration with public and private entities.
A total of 35 projects is analyzed and classified into five categories (prevention, restoration, training, multidisciplinary and dissemination). These projects are examined alongside indicators of their educational and social impact, including the number of participating students, collaborating companies and institutions, outputs produced, bachelor’s and master’s theses completed, and the actual population reached. The results show that Service-Learning strengthens students’ professional skills and environmental commitment, thereby contributing to sustainable land management.
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