The number and scale of extreme forest fires are increasing globally, a growing problem partly explained by the abandonment of traditional agricultural land.

Forest fires have become a worldwide nightmare, and not just in the summer. It is a problem being exacerbated by the so-called sixth generation of fires—large-scale forest fires that are becoming more destructive and harder to extinguish due to drought and global warming.

For example, in the first half of 2023, more than 65,000 hectares burned in Spain, which is 55% of the total land burned in the European Union during that period. Spain ranks first in terms of total burnt area, followed by France with 21,273 hectares burned, Romania with 19,909 ha, and Portugal with 7,061 ha.

Abandoned agricultural land

Fires on the Iberian Peninsula have primarily destroyed scrubland and open forests. The problem is linked to the abandonment of traditional agricultural land and rural environments. Raúl Arias (Raúl Arias) is a forest protection specialist from the Murcia region in eastern Spain.

“Due to climate change and the abandonment of rural areas, fires are becoming more intense and occurring more frequently... We are also experiencing long periods of drought,” he explains.

“The greatest effort and investment must be in prevention, which takes even more time than suppression. Why? We must create firebreaks or gaps in forests and promote the utilisation of the forest biomass we have to reduce the natural fuel for fires.”

The consequences of the Canadian fires

There are still around 400 active fires in Canada, the smoke and massive carbon monoxide emissions from which have even reached Portugal and Spain on the other side of the ocean. As noted by EU Firefighters Federations representative Petr Olejsek (Petr Olejsek), this problem has global consequences and requires cooperation to be resolved.
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