Wildfires: from causes to possible solutions
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Loading... - Benjamin Rogers
- 28 Jul 2022
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Romania was the most affected country in the European Union by forest fires, according to a report of the European Commission for the year 2020.
Forest fires have severely affected European Natura 2000 sites: over 136,000 ha – approximately 40% of the total area destroyed by fire in 2020 –, slightly less than in 2019, but above the average of the last nine years. As in 2019, Romania once again totaled almost half of the area destroyed by fires within the Natura 2000 sites, the largest area being in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve;
If in the past wildfires were only present in the Mediterranean area, with climate change and global warming , fires have started to become an increasing threat to Central and Northern Europe as well.
At the level of Europe and at the level of the entire planet
On average, about 65,000 fires occur in Europe each year , burning about half a million (500,000) hectares of wild land and forests; most of the burned area, over 85%, is in the European Mediterranean region.
More than nine out of 10 fires are caused by human actions. Negligence and uncontrolled fires to clear land remain the main causes of misfortune.
The situation was even worse in the 2021 wildfire season. By the time this report was published, nearly 0.5 million hectares had burned, 61% of which were forests that will take many years to regenerate. Around 25% of the areas that burned in Europe were within "Natura 2000" sites.
In recent years , devastating and unprecedented fires are reported all over the world, from the United States (California), to Australia, Indonesia, Africa, the Amazon area and even the Arctic area (Siberia). Read More…
