The year 2025 was the most destructive ever recorded for wildfires in the European Union, with more than 1.07 million hectares ravaged, according to satellite data published on Tuesday 31 March by the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), this total is equivalent to the surface area of Cyprus and represents a record since monitoring began in 2006. Including non-EU European countries, as well as the Middle East and North Africa, the area burnt reached 2.24 million hectares.
Fires peaked in August, when a heatwave triggered 22 major fires almost simultaneously in Portugal and Spain. These fires alone destroyed almost 460,000 hectares, or 43% of the total area burnt in the EU.
A total of 7,783 fires were mapped in 25 of the 27 Member States. Only Luxembourg and Malta were spared. Germany, Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia recorded their worst ever results.
Almost 39% of the areas affected were located in protected Natura 2000 sites, a proportion comparable to previous years. More than 424,000 hectares of these areas were affected.
Outside the EU, Ukraine was the hardest hit country in the EFFIS area.
In response to these developments, on 25 March the European Commission adopted a new integrated approach to fire risk management (see EUROPE 13836/6).
For further details: https://aeur.eu/f/leu (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)