A recent month left behind two major wildfires in the region and a forecast for an especially hot summer.
For the forests, this is not good news.
The land is very dry after a dry winter and ongoing drought and vegetation can quickly become highly flammable.
At the same time, there is a crisis in the fire and rescue services.
The total budget has increased, but not a single unit is invested in strengthening the system, opening new stations, or purchasing equipment.
While the region is unprepared to extinguish fires that may erupt, it is also not prepared to prevent them.
A series of nature based solutions are not being implemented, even though they could reduce the number of fires or soften their intensity.
Wildfires are a natural cyclical event, but rising temperatures and stronger drought periods create drier weather that causes them to ignite faster, burn longer and spread with greater force.
In Europe, for example, in one recent year alone, fires burned an area twice the size of a small country, caused billions in damage and released massive amounts of carbon into the air.
Climate change already causes extreme fire behavior.
Fire seasons have lengthened by about twenty percent since 1979.
Projections show that burned land will grow significantly by 2030 and even more by 2050, even under low emission scenarios.
Countries invest resources in responding to fires, but only a small part goes toward prevention or creating land conditions that keep fires from becoming uncontrollable.
Several solutions used in other countries have been discussed locally, but were never implemented. After the recent fires, it is time to reconsider them.
Around the world, hardworking helpers have been found to prevent fires. Goats.
They are brought into high risk areas, where they eat grass, leaves and low branches in dense forests. This makes it harder for fire to spread.
Their droppings also become organic fertilizer that increases the soil’s ability to absorb water.
Studies have shown that goat grazing can help fight wildfires more effectively than other alternatives. Despite this, the idea was never implemented on a meaningful scale.
Another idea suggested by experts is the controlled ignition of what are called cold fires.
These are low intensity fires lit intentionally to reduce dry organic material on the ground. In many European countries, controlled burn programs have been carried out since the 1980s.
Authorities set small, managed fires to burn dry leaves, branches, and grass.
This removes the flammable layer from the land.
The upper millimeters of the soil are affected, but the overall damage is minimal.
Experts propose carrying out pilot programs in different forested areas when conditions allow.
To apply such methods, specialists from abroad will need to be brought in.
Significant funding is required to build a strong forestry system that can support grazing, thinning, and controlled fires.
Requests have been made for annual budgets dedicated to this work.
Another important measure is the creation of buffer zones.
These are areas where trees are thinned to very low density, reducing the amount of dry material and breaking the continuous structure of dense and flammable forest.
Recommendations for buffer zones have existed for decades but were barely implemented.
Budgets allocated to them in the past were far lower than required and only a small fraction of identified areas have actually received treatment.
Local authorities are not funded properly for these tasks and many necessary regulations remain unapproved for years.
A major problem is the dominance of conifer trees in artificial forests.
These trees produce large amounts of flammable material and naturally burn intensely.
Their structure allows fire to climb from the ground to the treetops very quickly.
In major fires in the past, the rapid spread was caused by this tree type.
Experts argue that the only real solution is to replant forests with local species that burn less easily and are more resistant to drought.
This requires a national reforestation program carried out gradually but consistently.