- Each region must adopt annual plans for prevention, surveillance and fire-fighting covering its whole territory all year round.
- At very high or extreme risk, minimum prohibitions apply: open fires, burning, sparking machinery or fireworks.
- The State offers help with restoration of burnt areas, subject to area thresholds and regional co-funding.
On 2 August 2022 Royal Decree-Law 15/2022 of 1 August, adopting urgent measures on forest fires, was published in the Official State Gazette. It came into force the next day and reforms the Forestry Act on three fronts: prevention, fire-fighting and the restoration of affected land. The Government approved it in the middle of the summer’s wave of fires.
The text itself justifies it with data: by 24 July there had been 31 large fires, of more than five hundred hectares, and 135,147 hectares had burnt, the largest area since 2012. It mainly concerns public authorities, but also forest owners, farming, forestry and tourism businesses, and anyone operating in rural land.
Plans all year round
Until now defence plans focused on high-risk areas. The new wording of article 48 requires each region to adopt annual plans covering its entire territory, applied continuously and published before 31 October of the preceding year. They must specify technical and professional resources, the periods of highest risk and the preventive work owners must carry out, such as forestry treatments, firebreaks, access tracks and water points.
Regions have until 1 January 2023 to adapt their services. For the owner of a forest or woodland estate, the practical consequence is that the plans may set cleaning and maintenance tasks with deadlines, and that the routes for carrying them out include agreements, grants or substitute performance by the authorities. It is worth following the publication of the relevant regional plan.
What is banned at extreme risk
When the State Meteorological Agency forecasts a very high or extreme risk in an area, regions must immediately apply, at the least, a catalogue of prohibitions: lighting fires in open spaces and in rest areas, recreational zones and campsites; suspending permits to burn stubble, pasture and pruning waste; using pyrotechnics; and throwing away burning objects.
The measure with the most practical effect for businesses is the restriction on machinery and equipment that cause deflagration, sparks or electrical discharges in forests and in a 400-metre strip around them, unless expressly authorised or needed for fire-fighting. It affects farms, forestry work, building sites and events. Infringements are serious and, if the damage to the forest takes more than six months to repair, very serious, without prejudice to the Criminal Code.
Restoration and State support
The decree-law adds an article 50 bis allowing regions to ask the State for help with forest and environmental restoration. It requires an up-to-date prevention plan, permanent teams and proven funding, and that the fire exceeds an area threshold: more than 10,000 hectares, more than 5,000 if over 70% is wooded, or more than 500 in Natura 2000 sites affecting municipalities with at least half of their territory in that network. On islands the thresholds are lower.
The minister may declare a special action zone and the emergency nature of the works, which include hydrological-forest restoration, removal and treatment of burnt biomass or pest control. The region co-funds the percentage set in the declaration, which cannot exceed 50% of the cost. Anyone with activity or land in risk areas should review their insurance, regional aid and deadlines, and ask their adviser what backing exists in each case.
Fire prevention stops being only a summer matter for firefighters: it becomes a year-round question of planning.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
