The risk of forest fires in the Mediterranean zone of chile – a case of permanent environmental perturbation

Abstract

The mediterranean zone of Chile is located approximately between 31º and 38º south latitude and it concentrates the country’s largest population. Because of this human pressure as well as because of the dry weather, with only tour months of rain and the rest of the year warm and dry, the conditions are favourable for the generation of forest fires. A specific native forest of this zone is the sclerophyll forest. A sector of coastal hills located about 33º south latitude is analyzed where there is a sclerophyll humid type forest next to which lives the world’s southernmost palm tree that is endemic to Chile – Jabaea chilensis (Mol.) Baillon. This relief has been affected since 1962 by repeated impacts of vegetation fire. This has altered the regeneration and permanence of this humid forest in central Chile, and at the same time is putting at risk the habitat of the Chilean palm tree.