Dealing with drought: how fog collectors are providing trees with water in Spain

The fog collectors are sheets of plastic mesh erected in the path of the wind. Photograph: Courtesy of Life Nieblas

As summer fires continue to devastate huge areas of woodland in Spain, France and Portugal, and drought plagues Europe and the UK leaving tens of thousands of acres at risk of desertification, some scientists are busy collecting fog.

The EU-backed Life Nieblas project (niebla is Spanish for fog) is using fog collectors in Gran Canaria in Spain’s Canary Islands, and Portugal, to improve degraded landscape and fuel reforestation.