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🇰🇷 South Korea /Disasters & Emergencies

Dense Single-Species Forests Are Fueling Wildfires, Expert Says

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • French researcher Arthur Guerin-Turcq said wildfire risk reflects both global warming and forest-management and land-use choices.
  • He argued that dense single-species plantations spread fire more quickly than mixed forests and recommended reducing tree density, restoring wetlands and creating open buffer zones.
  • He also called for climate-adapted planning across forests, farmland and cities, including agroforestry, hedgerows and more urban green space.

Wildfires should not be treated solely as natural disasters, according to Arthur Guerin-Turcq, a geography lecturer at France's Sorbonne University. He said they also result from economic and political choices that can be changed.

Guerin-Turcq attributed the recent intensification of fires to global warming and forest-management practices. Heat and drought make ignition easier, while forestry and tourism policies favor high-value species. European forests, he said, have become denser as planting cycles shorten and are increasingly optimized to supply the packaging-board industry.

Today's wildfires are not natural disasters, but the result of economic and political choices and land-use planning. Those choices can be changed.

— Arthur Guerin-TurcqThe Sorbonne University researcher framed wildfire risk as a consequence of policy and planning decisions.

Mixed forests retain moisture better and slow the spread of fire compared with single-species stands, he said. Removing other species and planting only one, such as pine, also impoverishes the soil. His proposed response includes lowering tree density, restoring wetlands and creating open areas where combustible material does not form an unbroken chain.

Mixed forests, which retain moisture better, burn more slowly than single-species forests.

— Arthur Guerin-TurcqHe contrasted mixed forests with dense single-species plantations.

He said those measures could support both biodiversity and fire resistance. Forest policy should combine wetland restoration, varied landscapes and greater diversity of tree species, because the two goals are generally compatible.

Guerin-Turcq also urged broader land-use changes. Farms could combine agriculture and forestry instead of relying on a single crop, while hedgerows could replace concrete walls at property boundaries to help rainwater enter the soil and reduce runoff. In cities, he criticized excessive concrete surfaces, impermeable soil and dense development without greenery. He called for neighborhood green spaces near dense areas and public planting with species adapted to the changing climate.

We need to create open spaces so combustible material is not connected in a continuous chain.

— Arthur Guerin-TurcqHe described the purpose of forest buffer zones.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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