Forest fires in the Mediterranean: a burning issue

The Mediterranean has been identified by WWF as one of the most important regions in the world for its outstanding biodiversity features. Mediterranean forests, situated in a transitional zone between the European, African and Asian continents, are one of the planet’s centres of plant diversity, with 25,000 floral species representing 10% of the world’s flowering plants on just over 1.6% of the Earth’s surface. They also play host to an amazing faunal diversity.

But the Mediterranean forests are also under serious threat, with forest fires, in most cases deliberately set, playing a major role in their degradation and bringing about huge social, economic and environmental effects. There is a strong need to put in place an effective policy of prevention to address the root causes of this phenomenon.

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Forest fires in the Mediterranean

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