{"id":568110,"date":"2026-07-31T05:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T05:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/568110\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T05:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T05:28:08","slug":"wildfires-prevention-is-the-best-defence-un-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/568110\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires: Prevention is the best defence, UN says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The warning comes from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) which\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0more than 434,000 hectares have already burned across Europe this year, according to latest available data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery summer reminds us that\u00a0wildfire is no longer an exceptional event but an increasingly predictable consequence of a warming climate,\u201d said Paola Deda, Director of UNECE\u2019s Environment and Forests Division.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile emergency response remains essential, our greatest opportunity lies in prevention, sustainable forest management and building more resilient landscapes and communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Forests destroyed, homes evacuated\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Europe,\u00a0wildfires have destroyed some 42,000 hectares of pine forest in the Gironde\u00a0region of France and forced tens of thousands of\u00a0residents and\u00a0tourists to evacuate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Neighbouring\u00a0Spain has recorded more than 200,000 hectares burned, or twice its historical average, making this one of the country\u2019s worst wildfire seasons in decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0European Union (EU)\u00a0recently\u00a0warned that\u00a0the wildfire crisis is moving eastwards, with Greece and Italy facing rising risks\u00a0as heat, drought and\u00a0strong winds\u00a0continue into early August.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The situation across the Atlantic is equally severe.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0United States\u00a0has recorded\u00a0roughly 1,849,000\u00a0hectares burned so far this year, while\u00a0Canada\u00a0has experienced\u00a0more than 4,000 wildfires that have burned 3,770,000 hectares\u00a0and dozens of large fires\u00a0still remain\u00a0out of control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Far-reaching\u00a0impacts<\/p>\n

Although wildfires are\u00a0often measured in the number of\u00a0hectares\u00a0burned,\u00a0the human impact extends far beyond the forest edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Homes,\u00a0infrastructure\u00a0and livelihoods can be lost and entire communities forced to flee at short notice. Moreover, smoke can travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres, affecting air quality and people far away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The economic toll is also rising. In the EU alone, wildfires are estimated to cost around 2.5 billion\u00a0Euros\u00a0every year\u00a0through damage to infrastructure, loss of tourism revenue and disruption to the wider economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even after the flames have been extinguished, communities must deal with ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, reduced agricultural productivity, health\u00a0impacts\u00a0and the expensive restorations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Human-driven\u00a0crisis<\/p>\n

Human activity\u00a0remains\u00a0the main cause of wildfires.\u00a0Roughly nine out of 10\u00a0are caused by people\u00a0\u2013\u00a0whether through negligence or deliberate acts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This\u00a0shows that many fires can be prevented through\u00a0greater public awareness, stronger regulations, temporary restrictions during periods of extreme fire danger and responsible behaviour in forests and natural areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, climate change is making fires\u00a0bigger\u00a0and more destructive, as rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, more frequent\u00a0heatwaves\u00a0and changing rainfall patterns extend fire seasons and expose regions previously considered at\u00a0low risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wildfires are also accelerating\u00a0the\u00a0climate\u00a0emergency.\u00a0In 2021,\u00a0they\u00a0released an estimated 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between 2001 and 2023,\u00a0global carbon emissions from wildfires\u00a0jumped<\/a>\u00a0by approximately 60 per cent, while emissions from boreal forest fires in Europe, North\u00a0America\u00a0and Central Asia\u00a0nearly tripled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This creates a dangerous feedback loop, UNECE said, as\u00a0climate change increases wildfire risk\u00a0and\u00a0larger wildfires release more greenhouse gases, further accelerating global warming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Invest today for a safer tomorrow\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although extreme wildfires cannot always be stopped once they develop, their frequency and impacts can be significantly reduced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UNECE\u00a0called for\u00a0greater investments in prevention, sustainable forest management, early warning, public awareness and climate adaptation\u00a0to\u00a0save lives, protect forests\u00a0and reduce losses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Technology, including artificial intelligence,\u00a0is becoming\u00a0an important tool\u00a0in\u00a0this regard, such as AI-powered detection systems in T\u00fcrkiye,\u00a0satellite\u00a0monitoring\u00a0and real-time risk mapping.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

UNECE insisted, however, that\u00a0technology alone will not be enough.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs climate risks continue to grow, strengthening forest resilience to fire is no longer only an environmental priority\u00a0\u2013\u00a0it is an investment in public safety, economic stability and climate security,\u201d the Commission said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The warning comes from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) which\u00a0said\u00a0that\u00a0more than 434,000 hectares have already burned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-568110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}