One of the facets of global warming in the Mediterranean basin is drought, and in its wake, gigantic fires which devour certain territories at dizzying speed. In Italy, Sicily is the region most affected by both phenomena. The summer of 2023 was that of record fires, the summer of 2024 that of record drought. On site, civil society initiatives are emerging to try to find solutions. This is the case of the Fenice Verde association, literally the Green Phoenix.
From our correspondent in Palermo,
“Become a gardener of nature” is the slogan of the Fenice Verde association which is offering, for the first time, workshops for harvesting and conserving native seeds in the mountains surrounding Palermo every weekend from november. “ We collect the seeds, we certify them as compliant, we publish a register to ensure their traceability, details the president of Fenice Verde, Emiliano Farinella. Then, we grow the plants in nurseries and finally, we plant them in areas that have been affected by the fires. »
During their weekend walks, the association’s volunteers only collect seeds from local species that are most resistant to fire flames. They are used to create a germplasm bank to grow baby plants and reintroduce them to land burned by fires after several years of fallow. “ The idea is to select local species to preserve a genome compatible with that of the destroyed plants. », explained Emiliano Farinella.
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« It’s not raining when it should be raining”
These destroyed plants, adapted to the increasingly warm and less rainy climate of the Sicilyare also the best assets to counter another effect of climate change in the region: around 70% of Sicily is exposed to the risk of desertification. This summer, the region experienced an unprecedented drought. However, droughts and fires are linked.
« The problem is that the vegetation becomes drier and drier as summer arrives, remarks Davide Borgia, member of the environmental protection association Legambiente, in Messina, on the other side of the island. And the most serious thing is the drought in autumn and winter, which means that it does not rain when it should rain. The proportion of dry flora is increasingly high, so little by little, even high-altitude vegetation becomes more vulnerable to fire. »
But there is hope and fires are not inevitable, even if it requires decades of patience.
Around a bend, the sun struggles to peek through the dense foliage. The car sinks into the undergrowth. Davide Borgia stops at the side of the road. All around there are majestic oak trees. It is a reforestation project launched 20 years earlier and miraculously survived the flames. “ For a botanist, for someone who loves nature, it warms the heart because it is the promise of what we could have in the long term, enthuses Davide Borgia. It’s fascinating to study. There is a little less dry grass than elsewhere, it’s cooler, we feel that there is water. Even if there was a fire, it would be very difficult to spread quickly. »
Sicily still has nearly 500,000 hectares of forest, or almost 15% of its territory. This is the lowest rateItalyjust after Puglia.
To listen in Great reportIn Sicily, rebuilding everything after the flames
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