How Is This Ancient Cattle Breed Fighting Wildfires in Portugal?

Portugal is one of the most vulnerable countries in Europe to
climate change. Straddling the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic
regions, it’s part of a climate change hot spot. Some of the
biggest fuels are shrubs. One study found that shrubland
covers 1.6 million hectares in Portugal—about 18 percent of the
nation’s land area. And those shrubs are gaining ground. That’s
because, for decades, people have been moving out of rural
communities such as the one Tommy Ferreira lives in. Most leave to
pursue better-paying jobs in the cities or in wealthier European
Union countries. Portugal has lost 30 percent of its rural
population since 1960. The same trend is occurring across the
Mediterranean region. Abandoning these farmlands is increasing
wildfire risk, according to an Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development report released last spring. When
people who work the land leave it, grazing pastures and farm fields
become thick with fuels. But these ancient Maronesa cattle can help
solve both of these modern-day problems. It was a solution hiding
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