Can we learn to live with wildfires?

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🗞️ Driving the news: Wildfire risk in Europe is projected to more than double by 2100, with climate change intensifying droughts and reducing rainfall
• In 2024 alone, Portugal lost over 100,000 hectares of land in a single week — one of Europe’s largest wildfires that year
• Scientists warn that extreme fires could become biennial events in some regions, urging a shift in mindset from solely fighting fires to learning how to live with them

🔭 The context: Europe is the fastest-warming continent, experiencing temperature increases at twice the global rate
• Alongside climate stress, land abandonment, monoculture forestry, and unplanned urban expansion into flammable zones have made many areas especially fire-prone
• Although fire suppression capacity has improved, the frequency of smaller fires has declined while the intensity and destructiveness of major ones are escalating

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Unchecked wildfires contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, destroy biodiversity, and degrade carbon sinks like forests and peatlands
• Proactive land management — through ecological restoration, sustainable forestry, and community planning — can mitigate fire risks
• Integrating fire into landscape planning, rather than treating it as an anomaly, is essential in adapting to a warming climate

⏭️ What's next: Policymakers and land managers are being urged to accelerate the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Law, improve cross-sector coordination, and invest in prevention strategies like controlled burning, grazing, and AI-based monitoring
• Countries less experienced with large fires, such as Germany or the Netherlands, must now rapidly adapt to growing risk
• A cultural and institutional shift toward fire-resilient landscapes is becoming imperative across Europe

💬 One quote: “People living next to forests...are not aware of how much the fire is here and it’s here to stay,” said ecologist Pierre Ibisch, co-author of the EASAC study

📈 One stat: The EU experiences around 60,000 wildfires annually, causing €2 billion in economic losses and burning areas nearly twice the size of Luxembourg

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