COUREL is located in inland Galicia, in a remote mountainous area that forms part of both a UNESCO geopark (2017) and a biosphere reserve (2019). Over the past decades, the region has experienced larger-scale wildfires, with the most recent in 2022 being the second most devastating in Spain’s history—though our headquarters remain more than two kilometers away from the affected zone.
Within the RESILIAGE project, the Novoneyra Foundation aims to mitigate the risk of wildfires and other emerging threats, such as increasingly frequent cyclogenesis events that bring heavy rains and winds, as well as low-intensity earthquakes originating from the Samos and Triacastela faults. To achieve this, traditional wisdom is harnessed through ancestral techniques, including the maintenance and cleaning of the peripheral ring of chestnut groves, among other practices to be conserved and recovered. These measures have proven effective in fostering resilience in both the environment and the local community, serving as a model for international application.
As part of our participation in the RESILIAGE project, within the framework of “active memory”, we aim to recover, preserve, and raise awareness prioritary about the traditional wildfire prevention and suppression techniques that have historically protected the Courel landscape, among other disasters happened as wind or rain ciclogenesis storms or settlements caused by heavy rain floods. These practices, passed down through generations, have been essential in safeguarding forests and rural communities.
© Fundación Uxio Novoneyra -FUN_ (Associated Partner)
Main hazard: megafires
Other hazards: floods (on headquarters, earthquakes (low intensity for now)
SyRI Framework: Active Memory
