A Planning Model for Fire-Resilient Landscapes in Portugal Is Riddled with Fallacies: A Critical Review of “FIRELAN” by Magalhães et al., 2021

Abstract

FIRELAN was developed as a model expected to foster the resilience to fire and sustainability of a landscape that is based on a number of premises about fire behaviour. We critically review FIRELAN and find that flawed ecological concepts and terminology are used, and that six fallacies are pervasive throughout the paper, namely begging the question regarding the effectiveness of land cover changes; the appeal to nature on the preference of native species over non-native species; confirmation bias on the flammability of native vs. non-native species; the oversimplification of fire behaviour drivers; questionable causation regarding the effect of land cover on fire hazard; and non-sequitur in respect to the flammability–resilience relationship. We conclude that FIRELAN overall lacks supporting scientific evidence, both theoretical and empirical, and would be unable to deliver adequate wildfire mitigation. Recommendations are given to guide the landscape-level process of planning and implementing wildfire impacts mitigation.

Keywords

• fire behaviour
• fire hazard
• flammability
• fire management
• forest resilience
• Portugal