Reacción a "Numerous fires are active in different parts of the peninsula"

It is normal for the risk of fires to be very high during heat waves. Under these conditions, any ignition—whether natural or man-made—is enough to cause fires like the ones we are seeing in recent weeks. The number of ignitions in northwestern Spain is very high and, in most cases, man-made, either through negligence or intentionally.

Heat waves in summer are common, although recent records show an increase in their frequency, duration and intensity. This creates very favourable weather conditions for the spread of fire, especially if ignition occurs in areas with a high fuel load (vegetation), which makes it difficult to control the fire. In the north-west of the peninsula, the fire season is getting longer, so we can expect to see more fires well into autumn, before the rains arrive and when the vegetation is most stressed by drought.

This fire regime is part of the trend observed in recent years, and climate change will favour the proliferation of large forest fires, making them even more difficult to extinguish. This is not new: the sector has long been calling for improved working and professional conditions for those who fight fires, people who give their all — and sometimes their lives — to extinguish them. However, fires ‘are extinguished in winter’: prevention requires landscape-scale land management to make it more resistant and resilient. The current agroforestry landscape is the result of policies implemented over the last 50-60 years and cannot be reversed overnight, but in the current climate context, the only option is to plan prevention to optimise available resources. There is no single solution, but rather a set of measures tailored to each territory, integrated to generate synergies and maximise effectiveness. Part of the solution also lies in recognising and rewarding the fire protection functions provided by agro-pastoral and livestock activities, beyond their direct economic production.