In Spain it seems as if summer has already started. Terraces and parks are full, the barbecue is on and people are scantily dressed. Despite the pleasure that many people experience from the beautiful weather, the Spanish weather map turns dark red. The temperatures are exceptionally high for this time of year and that brings with it some problems.
On Friday afternoon, the region of Asturias was surprised by a conflagration in several areas. The fire brigade has no less than 96 forest fires and is now busy with six hundred firefighters to fight the fire.
According to regional president Adrián Barbón, the goal at this stage is not so much to put out the fires, because with the strong winds that proves very difficult, and it endangers the fire crews. “We have to contain the fire,” says Barbón. “The assignment now is to save lives, save homes, save cities.” Several highways have been closed and several hundred people have been evacuated.
Spain is ravaged every summer by fires that destroy several natural areas, but the exceptionally high temperatures and extreme drought at this time of year means that the Spaniards must now also prepare for fires in the spring.
Wildfire in Valencia
Last weekend in the Valencia region, the first major wildfire of the year destroyed more than 4,000 hectares of forest. About 1,500 residents had to leave their homes. The fire seemed to be extinguished after a week of extinguishing, but on Saturday morning the local authorities warned that the fire could flare up again.
“Every year the forest fires start earlier and are more intense and dangerous,” says Raúl de la Calle Santillana, a forestry engineer at Forestales, an organization of forest engineers. “The fires also have an increasing impact on the environment. The forest area has increased by about 5 percent in less than ten years.”
Demographic factors – depopulation and aging of the countryside – contribute to an increase in forest area and thus also in fires
And that, according to him, would be partly due to demographic changes. Depopulation and aging of the countryside and the lack of an effective land management policy have contributed to the increase in forest area, but at the same time these are precisely the reasons for the increase in fires, says De la Calle. “Areas used to be cultivated, grazed, watered or covered with scrub under good management. Now that is hardly the case anymore and that means that sooner or later those areas are doomed to burn.”
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And precisely to prevent those large forest fires, controlled burning was done. By clearing a forest of dead leaves, tree limbs and other debris, you prevent destructive wildfires. This is called ‘controlled combustion’. But according to experts, that hardly happens now, so that the uncontrolled conflagration is gaining the upper hand due to the lack of rain and high temperatures. “And the longer the forests are not burned in a controlled manner, the more intense the forest fires will become. And the more difficult it will be to extinguish them”, says De la Calle firmly.
‘Terrorists’
In Asturias, the regional council suspects that the fires were started. “We are dealing with real terrorists who are endangering lives, towns and cities,” said Adrián Barbón, the head of the regional government, on Twitter.
According to Forestales, “human activity” is the cause of 96 percent of wildfires. This refers to negligence and willful misconduct. Raúl de la Calle: “It is of particular concern that 53 percent of forest fires are set deliberately, indicating serious and ongoing social and economic conflict.”
In the past, deliberate fires have often been associated with ranchers seeking more land for their livestock. Asturias repealed a law in 2017 banning cattle grazing in forest areas damaged by fire. The local police of Asturias is looking for the perpetrators of the possible arson. Penalties for arson can be up to 20 years in prison, depending on the damage caused.
Global warming also plays a major role. Temperatures are high, around 30 degrees Celsius, and the ground is bone dry due to a prolonged lack of rain, low humidity and strong winds. All ingredients for an explosive forest fire.
Forest management
But according to Raúl de la Calle, the combination of climate change, the depopulation of the countryside and the lack of good forest management make the fires more “voracious” and dangerous. “What is really disastrous is not properly managing our forest masses, nature reserves, protected or not. What is disastrous is the lack of a common policy at European, national, regional and local level.”
According to it European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) 493 forest fires in Spain destroyed a total of 307,000 hectares of land last year. Across Europe, that was 785,000 hectares, doubling the annual average of the past 16 years.
We need to start burning in a controlled way again
Raúl de la Calle Santillana engineer forestry at organization Forestales
For the forest fire experts there is only one solution: good forest management. “We need to get back to controlled burning. Good infrastructure must be built in the forests, so that the emergency services, maintenance personnel, can get to the area faster and easier,” says De la Calle. “Leaving dead wood on the ground after a fire can promote ecosystem recovery and increase biodiversity.”
But to achieve this, they need skilled professionals and sufficient government support. And that is where the challenge lies. In the summer of 2022, the Spanish government came up with a package of measures to combat forest fires all year round. With this, the government wants to ‘strengthen capacity and coordination’.
With these measures, Minister Teresa Ribera (Ecological Transition and Demography) wants all regional authorities to have fire protection plans available all year round and to promote coordination between autonomous regions so that all fire services are on the same page. All emergency services must also receive basic training to prevent and extinguish fires. More than 200 million euros has been allocated for this.
But De la Calle is not optimistic. “It looks bleak. For the whole of society that hopelessly watches how the forest fires destroy hundreds of thousands of hectares year after year and leave a trail of death and destruction. Think of the thousands of reptiles, mammals, insects that perish. But also the destruction of different types of forests, wood and landscapes where our ancestors lived. Huge resources and immense biodiversity are being lost, sometimes forever.”