LIFE: using nature to tackle wildfires and protect communities

Recently released data from the EU Science Hub has confirmed that summer 2025 was the worst on record for wildfires, with nearly 1 million ha burnt since the beginning of the year - 4 times the figure for 2024. Worst-hit countries included Portugal, Spain, France, Cyprus and Greece.

Faced with ever-rising summer temperatures and the associated risks of deadly wildfires, LIFE projects across Europe are urgently developing new ways to prevent fires happening in the first place, and to limit the damage when they do occur.

The 5-year, €2.6 million LIFE MIDMACC project has, for example, been clearing scrubland, introducing livestock and thinning overgrown forests to reduce fire risk in the La Rioja, Aragon and Catalonia regions of Spain. Using drones to assess the effectivity of the applied measures, the team tested and evaluated different nature-based solutions to reduce fires across 27 ha in pilot sites, with a potential effect at a wider landscape level.

'The more water the vegetation has, the less likely it is to burn,' explains project coordinator Diana Pascual. 'Initial results show that managed forests have more water content and that forests managed with livestock have even more water.' Farmer Javier Lasanta, who took part in the trials, agrees. 'Without cattle, the forests take over. Cattle are the biggest factor in keeping the forests well managed so there are not so many fires,' he says.

Other livestock also play their part. LIFE LANDSCAPE FIRE - a finalist in this year's LIFE Awards - has halved the number of fires across the project area in both Spain and Portugal by allowing goats to roam free and eat dry grass and shrubs. 'The goats eat everything on the ground,' says project coordinator André Mota. 'Grass is fuel for the fires, but it's also food for the goats!'

Not all fire is bad, however, and LIFE LANDSCAPE FIRE also employs a technique known as prescribed burning - carefully managed and controlled fires - to improve pastureland and reduce the amount of inflammable vegetation. This approach is so effective that some local farmers have requested controlled burns to be carried out on their land.

In Sweden and Finland Life2Taiga - which covers 6 140 ha of Western Taiga forest including 165 Natura 2000 sites - also uses prescribed burning to restore the biodiversity of these ancient woodlands. Building on the success of the previous LIFE Taiga project, the €23.5 million, 6-year initiative aims to reverse decades of poor forest management and monoculture.

By the time the project concludes in 2028, more than 200 fires will have been deliberately set across 3 400 ha. 'If you have never seen a controlled burn before, it can look dramatic,' says Ulrika Mogren, Life2Taiga's communications expert. 'There is fire and sometimes a lot of smoke, but what looks dramatic is in fact well planned and carefully controlled to give species that depend on the forest burning the opportunity to survive.'

Involving local land owners and residents is key to success, says project manager Julia Carlsson. 'When fires do go ahead it's important to communicate effectively with people in the affected areas to ensure they are not mistaken for wildfires. We inform them of our burning plan in advance and when it will go ahead. We also communicate with the public via local radio and media.'

LIFE MIDMACC , Life2Taiga and LIFE LANDSCAPE FIRE are just 3 of many thousands of LIFE projects supporting the European Green Deal, the 2050 long-term climate action strategy and the EU strategies on adaptation, forests, soil and biodiversity.