EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/426

(2004/C 78 E/0446)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2780/03

by António Campos (PSE) to the Commission

(11 September 2003)

Subject: Forest fires in the Union

This year, parts of the Union were hit by a wave of forest fires; in Portugal these were positively catastrophic.

Given that the Commission spends considerable sums on forest protection plans and forestry measures,

And has the Community information system on forest fires at its disposal.

Can the Commission answer the following questions:

1. What three species were most affected, and what were the surface areas devastated by forest fires, in each of the Member States in the last 10 years?

2. What percentage do these species account for in each Member State's woodlands as a whole?

3. What is the size of the areas covered by these more vulnerable species which have been devastated in the last 10 years?

4. What measures were taken, as part of the management of the EAGGF Guarantee, to prevent the funding of the more vulnerable species, and what amount of money went into the more fire-resistant species?

5. If the Commission has a forest tree flammability scale in graded form, would it provide me with the details?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(8 October 2003)

Under Article 2 of Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 (1) the Member States classified their territory by degree of fire risk. Some 60 million hectares of forest and other wooded areas (60 % private, 40 % public) in six Member States (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain) were classed as high and medium-risk areas. This accounted for 40 % of the total for the fifteen Member States.

Analysis of the Community forest fire information system data for the last 12 years shows that on average 1 % of the forests of the Member States' risk zones has been affected by fire each year but that in some parts of Greece, southern Italy and central and eastern Spain more than 3 % of the forest area has burned.

Analysis of the same data also shows that three big areas have had very large numbers of fires: the northwestern Iberian Peninsula (north half of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias), a Franco-Italian triangle comprising south-eastern France, Corsica, Liguria and Tuscany, and south-western Italy (Sardinia, Sicily, Basilicata, Calabria).

If weather conditions (severe drought, wind) are unfavourable and prevention and surveillance inadequate these large numbers of fires can turn into widespread fires, which is what appears to have happened this summer, at least in south-eastern France and Portugal.

The information provided by the Member States in their forest-fire protection plans shows the species affected as varying from one area to another. In Portugal maritime pine (Pinus nigra) is the most affected species (56 % of the burnt area), ahead of eucalyptus (17 %). In Italy it is chestnut (Castanea sativa) that burns most in Piedmont. Italy also shows that generally speaking broadleafs are more affected by fire than conifers, whereas Germany indicates the reverse. In France the Department of Drôme states that downy oak (Quercus pubescens) is the most affected species and black pine (Pinus nigra) the least.

It may however be pointed out that the worst affected species are undoubtedly in that position because they are the most widespread in the areas concerned.

The forest protection plans in fact make more reference to particular types of stand as being more affected than other types rather than to species.

Thus most of the plans indicate as vulnerable:

— young conifer plantations in their first few years (France, Germany),

— coppice and ‘maquis’ (France, Italy, Spain),

— broadleaf standards (France, Italy),

— ageing heathland,

— conifer plantations (Germany).

The Commission has no detailed figures on the various species burnt each year but in 2000 the Joint Research Centre at Ispra carried out a study that involved comparing the cartographic images of burnt zones obtained by remote sensing from space with the Corine-LandCover map.

It showed that in 2000 29 % of the area burnt had broadleaf cover (forest 5 %, sclerophyllous vegetation 13 %, ‘maquis’ 11 %), 8 % was conifer forest and 6 % mixed broadleaf and conifer forest. The rest consisted of agricultural and agri-forest zones (20 %), natural grassland (10 %), heath, moor and other wasteland 16 % and other ground cover types (11 %).

Before this question is answered something must be said on the meaning of vulnerability to fire.

For a forest species this is a matter of:

— its intrinsic flammability, dependent chiefly on its water retention capacity,

— its combustibility, i.e. its susceptibility to fire given the vegetation structure at the location: the cover afforded by a plant is of varying density and it is associated with various other species of the herbaceous and shrub storey in a stand of a particular type (coppice, maquis, standards) that is exploited or maintained to a greater or lesser extent and is at a particular age (natural regeneration, young plantation, sapling, pole stage etc.),

— the presence of triggering or aggravating factors in the environment: proximity of inhabited areas, badly protected waste dumps, roads, waterways, railways, electricity cables, weather conditions etc.

Thus the vulnerability of any particular species depends on its own qualities (flammability), its behaviour given the other plants present and the silvicultural techniques used there (combustibility), and external factors.

The specialists agree in not considering the intrinsic flammability of plants, hence the choice of forest species, to be a determining factor in fire behaviour. What is important is rather the structure of the stand, in other words the type of silvicultural management.

That said, the Commission has no figures on the breakdown by species of burnt plantations. All it knows is that young plantations are very vulnerable, particularly in their first few years, and that they have to be protected.

It is for that reason that Article 29(5) of Regulation (EEC) No 1257/1999 (2) stipulates that when forestry measures are financed by the Community the forest protection plan requirements of Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 must be met.

The Commission has no specific EAGGF Guarantee provisions to prevent funding for the more vulnerable species. Forestry policies are managed at Member State level.

Since 1992 an amount of EUR 7,2 million has however been spent under Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 on subsidising preventive work to improve the protection of forests considered to be among the more vulnerable:

— improvement of fire resistance for conifer plantations (Germany, Italy, Portugal),

— protection of young stands (planted or natural regeneration) (France),

— stand management to provide closed cover with a single crown level, research on parcelling by ground breaks (France),

— silvicultural treatment to give vertical discontinuity in stands (regular standards, simple coppice system, introduction of dense cover species) (France),

— conversion of coppice to standards (Italy),

There have been numerous studies on plant flammability and combustibility throughout the world, including a number part-financed by the Community under the research programmes or Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92.

The Institut national de recherche agronomique (Avignon) and the Instituto de investigaciones agropecuarias (Madrid) have for instance drawn up comparative lists for Mediterranean species flammability and can supply them. A number of the Member States' forestry departments have also drawn up maps of the susceptibility of forest stands to fire and these are used for fire prevention and control purposes.

(1) Regulation (EEC) No 2158/92 of 23 July 1992 on protection of the Community's forest against fire, OJ L 217, 31.7.1992.

(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations, OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.