A new EU agricultural policy has brought a qualitative change in forest-fire protection. Governments will now spend twice as much as before on measures such as reforestation to reduce soil drying.
A little-known effect of wildfires is that they weaken the soil, leaving it more vulnerable to rain-related disasters. It is a vicious circle for a country like Italy, which is exposed to both.
In the fourth part of the "Romania is burning" series, we explain how the emptying of Romanian villages has unforeseen consequences. Where there is no more work, farmlands burn – taking with them forests and protected wildlife.
Greece's current wildfire prediction map lacks transparency and fails to account for real-time weather changes, resulting in inadequate response to rapidly evolving fire conditions.
On the first anniversary of the fire in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park, a reporter and photographer from Deník Referendum spent a day there in the company of local experts Dana Vébrová and Jakub Hruška. What they saw contradicts much conventional wisdom.
Only nine percent of the streets in 30 large European cities are named after women: a sign that women's contributions to the history of cities have been not just forgotten, but erased. A municipal committee in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, wants to change the situation, but a series of obstacles is slowing down progress.
Eucalyptus, a tree species that thrives on fire, now accounts for 28% of the forests in the Spanish region of Galicia. The situation has come about through the policies of the local Popular Party.
Romania has a temperate continental climate, which does not make it prone to forest fires. So why do so many of them happen? Fire risk is going to increase even further due to climate change – but the country seems not to be fully prepared for it yet.
Vegetation fires not only destroy the environment - they kill animals and people, too. Last year alone, 15 people died in Romania due to out-of-control fires - which are almost always man-made.
To regenerate and use the land, people in Romania's Danube Delta burn the vegetation. This practice becomes problematic when it occurs outside the regular season. Right now, Romania is responsible for almost half of all fires in protected areas in Europe.
