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WILDFIRES

Neglected forests at the mercy of wildfires in Spain and Portugal

With climate change making devastating wildfires more likely, experts warn Spain and Portugal need to better manage their forests to stop vast swathes of land from being torched every year.

Flames rise from a forest fire near the village of Pumarejo, northern Spain
Flames rise from a forest fire near the village of Pumarejo, northern Spain, on July 18, 2022. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

Close to 200,000 hectares (495,000 acres) of forest in Spain have been lost to fire so far this year, more than in any other nation in Europe, according to the European Union’s satellite monitoring service EFFIS.

Portugal has lost just over 48,000 hectares to flames, the third highest amount in Europe that is only surpassed by Romania.

The spread of wildfires depends on the weather, the type of vegetation and the topography of the land, said Monica Parrilla, a forest campaign manager with Greenpeace Spain.

“Right now we have the ideal context for very intense fires,” she added in a reference to the scorching temperatures, strong winds and drought conditions Spain and Portugal have faced.

And the only factor which humans have some control over is the vegetation, Parrilla added.

“When it is dry, it feeds the fire. We need to focus on this flammable vegetation,” she said.

Parrilla called for brush to be cleared in woodlands either manually or through controlled burns, and for more firebreaks — a barrier of open land intended to check a wildfire.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 12, 2022 Spanish shepherd Daniel Sanchez, 36, herds his flock of sheep and goats to help reduce the risk of wildfires by clearing vegetation at the natural park of Collserola, near Barcelona. (Photo by Pau BARRENA / AFP)

Fire-resistant trees
To be more “fire-resistant”, forests also need to be made up of a greater variety of trees, she said.

Most forest area in Spain and Portugal is made up of monocultures of eucalyptus and pine trees, which are favoured by the paper industry but are highly flammable.

Around 36 percent of both Portugal and Spain’s land mass is covered by forest, according to World Bank data.

And about one-quarter of Portugal’s forests are eucalyptus, a fast-growing tree  native to Australia.

Fully 83 percent of the land ravaged by flames in Portugal between 2011 and 2020 consisted of pine and eucalyptus trees, according to figures from the Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation.

Ecologists in Portugal are calling for the planting of more indigenous tree species that better resist fire, such as chestnut, cork and oak trees.

Financial incentives should be given to small producers “so they can wait several years for these more resistant trees to become profitable,” said Marta Leandro, vice president of Quercus, Portugal’s biggest environmental group.

This would prevent them from “systematically turning to eucalyptus”, she added.

This photograph shows a burnt area following a wildfire in Cebreros, near Avila, on July 20, 2022.  (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP)

Rural exodus
Dwindling rural populations are also contributing to the neglect of forests, increasing the fire risk.

Many fields are abandoned and undergrowth left wild because the landowners are too old.

There are also fewer farm animals, such as goats, which help clear the land of scrub.

The biggest wildfires in Spain have been in the most sparsely populated regions like Extremadura in the west and the northwestern region of Castille and Leon.

Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera on Thursday stressed the importance of rural residents, saying they are “the real guardians of the land who are on the front line in the prevention of fires all year round”.

Similar views have been expressed by politicians in neighbouring Portugal, where forest fires in 2017 killed over 100 people.

Portuguese Interior Minister Jose Luis Carneiro said Tuesday that the “enhancement of rural development” was key to “fighting fires”.

While goats and sheep are already being used in some parts of Spain and Portugal to clear undergrowth, ecologists call for the development of extensive livestock farming.

“Investing in prevention” is not an expense but an “investment in the future” because the cost to put out a wildfire is higher “by far”, said Loures Hernandez of WWF Spain.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Far hotter than normal’: Spain set for scorching summer after rainy June

Rainy periods have marked June so far in parts of the country, but Spain’s meteorological agency has warned that it could still have one the hottest summers on record.

'Far hotter than normal': Spain set for scorching summer after rainy June

Spain could be set for a “far hotter than normal” summer this year, with experts predicting that it could be one of the hottest on record. This is according to forecasts by Spain’s state meteorological agency (Aemet).

Aemet spokesman Rubén del Campo stated that “there’s a high probability that temperatures will be much higher than normal and that this summer will be among the hottest 20 percent on historical record.”

READ ALSO: 2023 was second-hottest year on record in Spain

He added that the probability of a scorching summer is between 70-100 percent in most of Spain, and that the unusually warm weather could be felt most in the northern half of the peninsula, as well as the eastern Canary Islands.

Aemet posted some weather forecast maps to its X/Twitter account in recent days, with the entirety of the Spanish mainland and islands covered in dark red, meaning a high probability of abnormally high temperatures. “The high probability” of a heatwave, it said, “extends to the rest of southern Europe and northern Africa.”

This follows something of a stop-start June with rainy periods in many parts of the country. Del Campo admitted that so far “it seems that the summer hasn’t started” because temperatures are “slightly” lower than normal for the time of year, but stressed that Aemet forecast models predict that the intense heat will not take long to arrive. 

A marked rise in temperatures is expected for this weekend, although they could drop again next week before going up again as high summer approaches, according to forecasts.

With regards to rainfall, it seems it will likely also be a dry summer with little rain. Del Campo predicted “a summer with less rain than usual, especially in the north and inland peninsula”, where there is a 50-60 percent probability of rainfall below historical averages for the time of year:  “The most likely scenario is that of a quarter with less rainfall than usual,” he added.

Though an unusually wet Easter period helped to refill some of Spain’s dwindling reservoir reserves, a long period of dry weather will likely worsen Spain’s ongoing drought conditions. The problem is particularly bad in Catalonia and Andalusia.

READ ALSO: Will drought restrictions affect summer holidays in Spain?

Looking back on spring temperatures, Aemet data shows that it was also one of the warmest on record. Del Campo stressed that it was “the eighth warmest spring of the 21st century and the tenth since the start of the historical series in 1961.”

The average temperature during spring was 13.1C, which is 0.7C above average values for the 1991-2020 period. “Eight of the ten warmest springs on record have been recorded since 2006, further evidence of climate change,” Del Campo said.

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