In 2022, nearly 900 000 ha of land was burnt in the EU, according to the new report Forest Fires in Europe, Middle East, and North Africa 2022, published by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre. This corresponds to roughly the size of Corsica. Since monitoring through the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) started in 2000, 2022 is the second-worst year – the worst being 2017 with 1.3 million ha of burnt land.
For a third year in a row, unprecedented wildfire events caused large environmental and economic damage in the EU and tragic loss of life. While most of the fires (96%) are caused by human actions, they are aggravated by increased fire danger conditions driven by climate change.
”Wildfires are becoming ever more frequent and cause more damage. This is a clear sign of the catastrophic impacts of climate change. We are reinforcing our prevention measures and building the capacities to respond to wildfires. The Joint Research Centre’s data and analyses are crucial in this effort, ”Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.
Fires also impacted Natura 2000 sites, the EU’s biodiversity reservoir, accounting for about 43% of the total burnt area (approximately 365,000 ha out of the 900,000 ha burnt). The total burnt land in Natura 2000 protected areas in 2022 is the highest in a decade, according to the report.
It is a warning signal of what global warming can bring about in the coming years, as temperatures increase, and droughts become more pronounced in many European countries. Thanks to prevention measures put in place by the EU and its Member States and the enhanced preparedness and firefighting operations of the fire management services, the number of casualties in 2022 was contained.
Prevention measures must target all sectors of the population, including rural actors in direct contact with natural areas, as well as the enlarged population segment that lives in the so-called wildland-urban interface (WUI), where built settlements are either inside or adjacent to wildland vegetation. Most of the fires occur in the WUI, as they are set by human actions, and simultaneously most affect this population in areas at high risk of wildfires.
”As the climate crisis worsens, the destructive wildfires we saw this summer will only continue to get more frequent and intense. Europe must be prepared for this dangerous new reality. This year we were proven correct in anticipating the scale in the wildfire season, and I am proud we have managed to strengthen the EU Civil Protection Mechanism by doubling our rescEU firefighting fleet and starting to pre-position firefighters from across Europe to the most extreme predicted wildfire sites. But building response capacity is simply not enough: most of all we need to step up prevention and mitigation efforts to lessen the impact of wildfires. Every possible action taken today will ensure we are ready for the longer, more deadly wildfire seasons of tomorrow,” Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management.
Data for 2023 shows that so far, wildfires have already burned about 500,000 ha of natural land in the EU. This includes the largest single wildfire (Alexandroupolis, Greece) recorded in the EU, with over 96,000 ha burnt. This year saw again rampant wildfires, difficult to contain by traditional firefighting for their high temperatures, intensity, and speed. They were put under control only when meteorological conditions improved, allowing firefighters to tackle the blazes. Other critical wildfires in the EU occurred in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
In the last three years, wildfires raged from west to east and across northern, central, and southern European countries. The high frequency and intensity of wildfires in the summer put the EU’s fighting services under unprecedented conditions of fire danger in which, often, aerial firefighting loses its effectiveness and ground firefighting is difficult or impossible. The trend of these unprecedented fires occurs not only in Europe but also across the globe.
The publication of the report takes place in the context of the presentation, by the Commission, of a Forest Monitoring Law that will plug existing gaps in the information on European forests and create a comprehensive forest knowledge base.
