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Forest fires are probably the more deleterious event in forest and range areas in the Mediterranean nowadays. Despite the significant area burned every year, little has been done to develop strategies and techniques for soil and water conservation in burned areas, despite the major impacts on soil erosion and hydrological processes.

The main problem is the fast speed at which soil and water degradation occur right after the fire, in response to the first autumn rainfall events. This limits the opportunities to mitigate the deleterious impacts. This paper presents several ex-ante strategies and techniques, such as the forest planning, prescribed fire and preventive forestry, and several ex-post techniques, such as mulching, seeding, hillslope barriers, creating infiltration opportunities, channel treatments and ecosystem restoration. To be effective and implementable, techniques must be in place as soon as possible, if …