In Galicia's northwestern hills, villagers are turning to a centuries-old practice to reduce wildfire risk: reintroducing indigenous livestock to manage vegetation through grazing. The move comes after a period of industrial forestry planting and rural depopulation left wide tracts overgrown with highly flammable species and contributed to a severe wildfire season that peaked in 2025.
Plantation drives that favoured pine and eucalyptus for industrial use displaced traditional breeds such as the Cachena - the Iberian peninsula's smallest cow - and left much land untended as people migrated to cities. The Cachena, often described locally as a "goat-cow," is noted for its ability to eat a wide range of vegetation and to navigate steep, uneven terrain that larger cattle struggle with.
A 2017 wildfire that swept through the parish of Vincios prompted local land collectives to revive animal-based land management. These community associations, which jointly administer local commons, opted to breed and reintroduce goats, sheep and Cachena cows to graze down the scrub that supplies fuel for fast-moving fires.
"The native livestock keeps scrubland at an appropriate height so it does not become dangerous," said Jose Taboada, coordinator of the Vincios land collective, pointing to a parcel cleared of flammable shrubs such as brambles, gorse and broom. Such species contain oils that burn intensely and can transfer flames from the ground to the tree canopy, increasing fire severity.
Collective efforts across Galicia, together with policy measures, have driven a marked recovery in native herds. Regional association BOAGA reports native livestock numbers rising from just over 1,800 in the late 1990s to more than 30,000 by early 2026, including about 8,000 Cachena cows - up from roughly 400. The regional government offered incentives for farmers to retain young female cows rather than sell them, while a local zoological centre supplied bulls at low cost to facilitate breeding.
In Vincios the animals are fitted with GPS collars that remove the need for fences, allowing herds to roam and graze freely across communal holdings. "They are perfectly adapted to terrain like ours," Taboada said, describing how the animals control vegetation without eradicating it entirely.
Vincio's cooperative approach is one example among roughly 3,000 communities in Galicia that manage around 700,000 hectares - about a quarter of the region's land - under a communal system with medieval origins that was formally legalised in 1989. The region has been among the hardest hit in Spain by wildfires: nearly 119,000 hectares burned last year, an area roughly double the size of Madrid.
Scientists point to climate change as a driver of increasingly severe fire seasons across southern Europe. Spain, described in monitoring reports, has registered average July temperatures 5.6 degrees Celsius above 1961-1990 levels so far this month.
Other Spanish regions, including Andalusia, Catalonia and Castile-La Mancha, have also adopted livestock grazing as part of wildfire prevention. Forestry engineer and professor Jose Vicente Oliver emphasises that grazing is supported by scientific studies but should be combined with other measures - mechanical thinning and pruning of biomass and controlled burning carried out by specialised personnel - rather than relied on alone.
"Livestock farmers need to earn a living by producing meat, or milk. But our common-land communities care about land stewardship," Taboada said. "This area has always burned... the livestock allow us to keep the woodland open, managed, and under control."
As Galicia rebuilds native herds and re-establishes grazing regimes, the approach illustrates an intersection of rural livelihoods, public incentives and land stewardship aimed at reducing fuel loads and, by extension, wildfire exposure.