The threat of forest fires has become one of the biggest environmental and economic challenges in the world. The impact of these phenomena not only affects ecosystems and biodiversity, but also the population and markets.
According to the data of the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) Fires in Europe are increasing in frequency and severity, with risk zones spreading to regions previously considered safe. Extreme fires are projected to increase by 14% by 2030 and 50% by the end of the century in Europe;
The reality of data
According to data provided by the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS)a joint platform of the EU Copernicus Programme, NASA and FAO – which monitors, analyzes and visualizes forest fires globally in near real time – The countries most affected by forest fires in terms of area burned are mostly in Africa.
According to their data, throughout 2025, forest fires devastated almost 390 million hectares worldwide (an area almost as large as the European Union)of which more than half (almost 246 million hectares) corresponded to Africa.
“Africa was the largest contributor, although there is also a large part of emissions from North America and Australia, with extremely important emissions,” he comments. Laurence Rouil, director of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service,
The situation in Spain
In Spain, the large fires of 2025 have been an environmental disaster, raising CO₂ emissions to record levels. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), The flames generated nearly 19 million tons of CO₂, equivalent to 7% of the country’s total emissions in 2024.
“With the fires last summer, CO₂ emissions in Spain have been the highest generated by fires in European countries and have contributed greatly to making 2025 a record year for all of Europe,” comments Laurence Rouil, who points out that, even so, The emissions from the European continent are actually a small part of those generated by fires in the world as a whole, especially when compared to those of Africa and North America.
Change focus
According to a report “From Wildfire Risk to Resilience: The Investment Case for Action” (From wildfire risk to resilience: Investment arguments for action), published in January of this year, by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with PwC, we must urgently change the approach to fighting fires. “Current strategies, focused mainly on extinction and post-fire response, are insufficient and economically unsustainable in the face of the increase in the frequency and intensity of fires worldwide, they detail in their study.
Currently, more than half of wildfire-related spending goes toward suppression, while only a small fraction is invested in prevention and planning. However, investing in prevention is essential not only to reduce long-term costs, but to meet European climate neutrality targets by 2050. According to the study, proactive approaches and landscape management are more cost-effective than investing exclusively in suppression when the fire is already uncontrollable.
Economic and environmental arguments
The report also highlights that the era of “megafires” is surpassing existing extinction systems, generating increasingly greater economic and social losses and ensures that preventive investment generates a much greater substantial return by avoiding massive losses in property, infrastructure and human lives. Hence, its authors propose creating financing mechanisms that allow measuring, pricing and financing risk reduction, integrating private sector investment, to establish public-private alliances.
The study also places emphasis on the importance of using technology that allows for reliable data to identify high-risk areas and plan vegetation management, in such a way that more heterogeneous and resistant landscapes can be promoted, for example, resorting to extensive livestock farming to control biomass.
Also, at the COP30 in Belém, the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, launched an appeal supported by 50 countries to abandon the reactive model and focus on prevention. Initiatives such as the Forever Tropical Forests Mechanism seek to financially compensate countries for preserving their forests, demonstrating that prevention is key to resilience and the creation of economic value.
Chestnuts, bears and rural development
There seems to be unanimity among reports and experts that preventive management and a focus on forest resilience are essential to reduce costs and meet climate objectives. Solutions such as landscape management, controlled burning, adapted infrastructure and public-private collaboration make it possible to anticipate and avoid massive losses.
In this context It is necessary to highlight projects that combine biodiversity conservation and revitalization of the rural environmentas is the case of the “Chestnuts, bears and rural development” Project, led by the Brown Bear Foundation and in which the energy company Naturgy participates, which seeks to recover traditional chestnut groves in the Cantabrian Mountains as a tool to preserve the habitat of the brown bear and generate economic opportunities in rural areas.
The chestnut trees, characteristic of mountain areas of the Iberian Peninsula and southern Europe and resilient to the increase in temperature caused by climate change, have suffered the abandonment of their cultivation in recent decades. The project aims to reverse this situation through the restoration and sustainable management of these forests.