As blazes threaten Bordeaux, French farmers have been helping alongside the firefighters, filling their slurry tanks with water to help where they can. Abandoned farmland grows over with shrubs that dry out or get replaced by vulnerable, homogenous forests that burn easily. | Cesar Manso/AFP via Getty ImagesYet while there’s plenty of natural fodder for goats, the market doesn’t offer much incentive for shepherds. The solution, he argued, is creating a dedicated fund, following the same logic as the EU’s coronavirus response in 2020. The first line of defense offered by shepherds tending to tinderbox land plots, he argued, “is exactly the same thing.”