Mountain goats with the munchies help fight Iberian wildfires

Wildfires are getting worse across the world. 21 years of NASA satellite data shows severe blazes have more than doubled in frequency since 2003 and the six most extreme years since records began have come since 2017.

Portugal and Spain's wildfire season now starts earlier, ends later, with increasingly intense fires causing more death and destruction.

Seven people died and 50 injured in the September fires in central Portugal in 2024 and the fear felt in the villages around Viseu is real.

"Of course there's a lot of fear during the wildfires, lots of fear and worry," Vitor Gomes, a local farmer and shepherd told CGTN. "Not just for us but for the animals too. They feel fear too, they suffer stress and anxiety just like us."

How mountain goats help the fight

One novel EU program called the Life Landscape Fire Project is now using mountain goats with the munchies to fight these fires before they even begin.

But to film them, first you need to find them. The goats are free to roam and after a thrill-ride of a 4x4 journey up an unpaved part of the mountains in Viseu, there's a sound that gives them away - goat bells.

A combination of controlled fires and hungry goats grazing helps to reduce plant cover that can dry up in summer and fuel the rapid spread of blazes.

Controlled fires help burn older plants that goats don't eat, allowing fresh green vegetation to grow which grazers like goats, and cows do eat.

The pilot project pays shepherds to guide their goats to areas where they want the plant cover reduced, and they also build shelters and watering areas to attract free roaming animals to the desired spots.

That's how mountain goats and mirandesa cows become mobile fire prevention units, and the results of this pilot project are giving hope for the future.

Why does Spain and Portugal suffer such bad wildfires?

A combination of hot, dry summers with very little rainfall and strong winds creates the perfect conditions for wildfires, while plants dry up and provide the tinder. All it needs is a spark, which can come from many sources - a cigarette thrown out a car window, the sun burning through broken glass, electrical faults, and arson.

Scientists say these fires have already become much worse because of human-caused climate change, and that they will become even more frequent and devastating as planet heating continues.

Back at base in Viseu, an hour from Porto, Life Landscape Fire Project coordinator Andre Mota keeps an eye on the weather on a multi-screen display that doubles as a wildfire watch, and oversees this EU-funded project.

"We are in one of the most affected regions by wildfires, historically speaking," said Mota.

"In September we had a wildfire with extreme behavior that burned almost everything in its path. But our parcels managed to keep green."

Mota shows drone footage showing one half of the mountain black and burned and the other green, the parts which controlled fires and hungry goats have made unlikely to burn.

"Our patches don't burn," he adds. "So I think with this we can prove that doing this on a bigger scale, not only as a pilot but as a solution itself, it has been proven to work. We believe it works."

This is one of a number of EU-funded LIFE projects in southern Europe that also include creating low-emission energy communities, all aimed at preventing the release of 200 tonnes of CO2 a year by reducing the number of forest fires.

The bells ring again as the goats go peacefully on their way, a sound of hope in a region directly in the path of climate chaos.