# Wildfires as legacies of agropastoral abandonment: Gendered litter raking and managed burning as historic fire prevention practices in the Monte Pisano of Italy

## TL;DR

Traditional agropastoral practices, like litter raking and managed burning, historically reduced fire risk in Mediterranean landscapes but are now overlooked.

## Contribution

The study highlights the gendered and ecological significance of understudied agropastoral fire prevention practices in the Monte Pisano region.

## Key findings

- Forest leaf litter raking, mainly done by women, reduced fire risk when combined with firewood cutting and burning.
- Historic stigmatization of traditional burning and gendered labor has limited modern understanding of fire management.
- Litter raking is understudied outside Central Europe and may have global ecological relevance.

## Abstract

Agropastoral practices that historically reduced the flammability of Mediterranean landscapes are poorly understood due to state prohibitions and lack of scientific interest. Oral histories, analysis of agronomical writings, transect walks, and ethnographic study of fire managers and community members in the Monte Pisano of Italy, find legacies of traditional agropastoral practices in present-day landscapes. Forest leaf litter raking, largely carried out by women, combined with fire wood cutting and burning to greatly reduce fire risk. Historic stigmatization of traditional burning and ignoring gendered peasant labor have reduced contemporary scientists’ and fire managers’ understandings of ecological processes and of options for reducing fire risk. Fire managers in the Mediterranean, and in areas around the world affected by rural depopulation, would benefit from a better understanding of traditional agropastoral and fire management practices. Litter raking has been understudied outside Central Europe, is often gendered, and may have important ecological consequences around the world.