site.btaBulgaria Second in Number of Forest Fires in Europe in 2024

Bulgaria has some of the highest numbers of forest fires in Europe in 2024, second after Cyprus according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), said Association of Municipal Forests Executive Director Tihomir Tomanov.

Each year, there are around 600 forest fires in Bulgaria. These incidents annually affect an average of around 10,000 hectares of land, resulting in direct economic losses of around EUR 2.5 million. EFFIS reports indicate that during the first years of the 21st century, more than 100,000 hectares of forests in Bulgaria were affected by fires, with the years 2000 and 2007 being the worst in the history of Bulgarian forests. In 2007, there were 1,479 forest fires that damaged 43,000 hectares of forest, and in 2000, 1,710 forest fires damaged 57,406 hectares of forest. The year 2023 is likely to be the worst for Bulgarian forests, the Tomanov's message to the media informed.

A 2022 EFFIS report indicated that the main causes of forest fires in Bulgaria included negligence (321 fires, 62%); arson (16 fires, 3%); natural causes (21 fires, 4%);  unknown reasons (158 fires ,31%).

Additional statistics collected between 1970 and 2005 show that harmful practices in agriculture, power distribution, negligence have persisted for decades, indicating a long-standing vulnerability of forests to fire. These data highlight the urgent need for comprehensive fire prevention strategies and sustainable forest management to mitigate this ecological challenge, added Tomanov.

He also pointed to the passive behavior of the Bulgarian authorities and institutions responsible for fighting forest fires, noting that the only investments that are made in this direction are through European programmes.

Tomanov said that in the last two programming periods, the measures for dealing with fires have been reduced to financing the Fire Safety and Protection of the Population General Directorate, so that the Directorate can extinguish fires more effectively. The expert argued  that there is no experience on the part of the Environment Operational Programme management authority to study and finance measures with a proven effect for forest fire protection, such as a combination of measures for prevention, preparation, response.

The Rural Development Programme's attempts to finance firefighting are equally unfortunate, Tomanov explained. In the 2007-2014 period, the construction and equipment of fire towers were financed, which never beceame operational within the early warnong system. Thus, municipalities, which must react first on the ground, together with the forest divisions, were left without the opportunity to invest in fire-fighting depots, helipads, water basins and other means of monitoring and prevention.

Association of Municipal Forests insists that urgent measures be taken at the state level and for the reworking of the 2021-2027 Environment Operational Programme. They argued that this should be done through  brainstorming sessions by  experts with proven international and national experience on leading trends in forest and environmental protection and by integrating the experience of Portugal, which made a big breakthrough in the fight against forest fires.

The Association of Municipal Forests stated that in their expert assessment, approximately 40-50% of the forests in Bulgaria fall into the high-risk category for forest fires. This highlights the urgent need for proactive measures to manage forest resources and perfect fire prevention strategies.