Reacción a "So far this year, almost 120,000 hectares have been destroyed by fire in Spain – one of the highest figures recorded for this time of year"

July isn’t even over yet and almost 120,000 hectares have already been destroyed by fire in Spain. Did you expect a summer like this?

“Yes. The scale of the fires is getting bigger and bigger. The CREAF in Catalonia tells us that forest cover in Spain has increased by 20 per cent over the last three decades, so there is more and more fuel (the exodus from rural areas is surely behind this), and last winter was very wet. The summer is proving to be very hot, in line with the trend of recent years. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, in my opinion.”

What has gone wrong with prevention?

“Talking about a ‘failure’ is a sensitive issue and can have implications I’d prefer to avoid. The amount of fuel is growing, and there aren’t the resources (or not enough resources are being allocated) to prevent a situation like this. An example: Castile and León has a larger land area than Portugal but only 10 per cent of its GDP. The regional government does not have sufficient resources to prevent major fires across its entire territory. There are opportunity costs (the money that could be allocated to fire prevention is instead channelled into other purposes which, for whatever reason, are considered a priority), and the maintenance and management of woodland require staff and resources; that costs money. Sometimes there hasn’t been a failure as such, but rather a practical impossibility of taking effective preventive action.”

What is your forecast for the rest of the summer?

“It will depend on how temperatures develop and the duration of the heatwaves. If they continue as they have done so far, the situation will surely worsen, as the fuel will dry out even further and that will make everything more difficult. That is what I foresee, but I hope I am wrong.”