Prof. Johann Georg Goldammer, Director of the Global Fire Monitoring Center, Germany, monitoring wildfire in Eastern Russia in 2012

By Brigitte Leoni

GENEVA, 8 August 2017 - Rapid urbanisation and climate change are major drivers of the many forest fires which continue to sweep across parts of southern Europe claiming many lives and causing significant economic losses, according to a leading expert. 

Euronews reports that an area the size of Luxembourg has been destroyed by 677 forest fires this year across the European Union, an increase of 215% over the yearly average between 2008 and 2016. 

Professor Johann Georg Goldammer, Director of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) based in Freiburg, Germany, is calling for more integrated fire management policies to reduce exposure to fire risk as temperatures soar particularly in countries bordering the Mediterranean. 

“What is happening today in many countries in Southern Europe is proof that we are facing a change in fire patterns which creates new risks and demands new policies. This is a new situation that would not have happened 30 to 50 years ago when forests and their surrounding landscapes were mostly managed by rural communities” said Prof. Goldammer. 

“The rural exodus which has seen millions of people move to urban areas, has left fewer people to manage the land and forests and great quantities of combustible material that are easy to burn when temperatures increase. This is further amplified by climate change which causes extreme and longer-lasting droughts and creates conditions for more intense and larger wildfires. 

“An additional problem is an increase of the occurrence of severe rainfall events on fire-denuded hillsides which leads to subsequent erosion, landslides and flash floods,” he said.