Although 2022 is not yet over, France has experienced one of the worst years for forest fires in decades. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), which has been keeping comparable statistics since 2006 thanks to satellite images from the European Copernicus project, 69,805 hectares have already been burned between the beginning of January and August 17. “This is six times higher than the average indicator of the last ten years. commented Olivier Rousset, Acting General Director of ONF. More serious years were 1976, 89, 90 and 2003. But this time, three-quarters of the burned surface is outside the zone where wildfires usually occur. In other words, the edge of the Mediterranean.
Two major fires in the Gironde alone (Landiras and La Teste-de-Buch) consumed more than 20,000 hectares of trees, almost equivalent to the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris (22,000 ha). Other regions including…
Source: Le Figaro
