According to recent reports in the south of Barcelona, a herd of donkeys have been helping to combat the ongoing wildfires in the country.
In reports which were shared by CNN, a non profit organisation in southern Catalonia, known as Tivissa Donkey Firefighters has been helping to nurse mistreated and abandoned donkeys, and put them to work as "firefighters".
The organisation was founded by Joan Cedó Sans, who started by taking in a few donkeys in 2020. Fast forward a few years, he now boasts a herd of 62, who move across the region to help clear private and public lands, with their seemingly relentless appetites. They graze the most flammable grasses across mountains and rural areas, carving nature firebreaks across this dry Mediterranean landscape.
This came about following the fires which engulfed his land in Catalonia in 2013, which inspired him to test to see if the donkeys would clear this forest undergrowth around. According to the founder, "They ate everything".
He was inspired by another pioneering non profit organisation in southern Spain, called “El Burrito Feliz,” (Happy Little Donkey), which helped rescue donkeys graze edges across Donanna National Park in 2024.
Speaking to CNN, Cedó Sans added: “We’re grateful for the animals that we feel deserve a second opportunity".
Cedó is now the mayor of the small town of Tivissa, and deals with the day to day operations with a volunteer, Jordi García, who joined them in 2021.
“It’s very gratifying,” Garcia said in Spanish. “You’re out in nature, and you’ve given these animals a chance".
This project, according to Cedó is mutually beneficial, with the donkeys preventing fires, while providing them with a "dignified life", a sense of belonging in a herd, as well as medical care from a voluntary vet, and foot of donate produce from local farms and a nearby theme park.
The donkeys also trample on the ground, which breaks the connected layer of dry foliage which allows a fire to spread.
To Cedó, there was always something special about theses animals.
“The work donkeys do, neither goats nor sheep can do,” he said to CNN. “They weigh more, so every time they tread, they tread harder, they eat more".
However, he admitted that herders with organisations such as Tivissa Donkeys Firefighters are paid too little to sustain their work, with herders receiving up to €80 per hectare cleared on private land, and up to €300 per hectare on public land.
“This project was born from nothing, by chance,” Cedó said. “But it’s been a profound lesson — socially, personally".
“We aren’t doing anything our ancestors didn’t do,” he added. “All we’re doing is putting value back on those rural tasks, that way of life that depended so much on animals", (all quotes in this article according to CNN)
As fire has always been a key element to the Mediterranean, grazing of both wild and domestic animals has been important in keeping such dry areas safe.
According to CNN, Dr Jordi Bartolomé Filella, a professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and researcher in herbivore ecology, said: “Without large herbivores, sooner or later this biomass would be ‘eaten’ by fire. Unlike the herbivores, fire consumes it suddenly — with wide-ranging consequences for the ecosystem and risks to people".
News of this comes as over 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes or lock down amid devastating wildfires which have swept across Spain and into parts of France. More on this story here.
