Wildfires are a global phenomenon, occurring on most continents and affecting a wide range of ecosystems. To the extent that predictive climate models indicate a more frequent occurrence of extreme meteorological episodes, more intense and severe fires are expected. Overall, these high-intensity wildfires are characterized by negative ecological and socio-economic effects, involving the loss of different ecosystem services, goods and even human lives, and also contributing substantially to carbon emissions. In addition, socioeconomic changes that occurred during the 20^th century (e.g. rural land abandonment and the extension of wildland-urban interface areas) have exacerbated the problem. There is therefore a need to develop effective forest management systems to address these new scenarios. In this context, prescribed burning under canopy vegetation strata, usually carried out with low to moderate intensity, may increase wildfire protection, reducing the horizontal and vertical fuel continuity and promoting landscape heterogeneity. Despite its benefits, use of this fuel management tool in Spain remains limited and is often only carried out in strategic areas at a very local scale. However, efforts are being made to include prescribed burning in forest management plans, and the total area treated has increased in recent years.

Planning under-canopy prescribed burning involves preparing burn prescriptions in relation to meteorological variables, season and ignition patterns, as these factors determine fire behaviour. Interactions between the aforementioned factors and some species traits might accentuate or decrease the stress on ecosystems, although in many cases, the way in which species respond to the perturbation is uncertain. Although, prescribed burning seems to be a potentially valuable management tool in some forest ecosystems, increasing stand resilience with apparently minimal effects, some data gaps have been identified regarding application of the treatments.