The province that suffered the most from fires in 2023 is Palermo with 43.5 square kilometers, which alone represents 43% of the total regional forests burned and a full 28% of the total national forests affected by fires this year. But Messina also pays a high price with 23 square kilometers of wooded areas gone up in smoke. This is revealed by an analysis by Ispra in the context of observations and monitoring of the impacts of medium and large-sized fires on ecosystems.
In 2023, the regions of Sicily and Calabria alone contributed to more than 83% of the total Italian forest area affected by large forest fires. The Sicily region alone, with a total of 101 square kilometers of forest area affected by fire, contributed to 64% of the total national forest burned in 2023, the note continues. In 2023, only 15 out of 20 regions were affected by large forest fires. Comparing the data with the previous year, the surface affected by fire decreases in 2023 in the Northern, Central-North and Central regions, while it increases in the Southern regions and in Sicily and Sardinia.
43% of forest ecosystems affected by fires in 2023 are located within protected areas, mainly belonging to Natura 2000 Network sites. In the space of just four days, between 24 and 28 July 2023, approximately 80 km2 of forest area burned (an average of 20 km2/day), almost half of what burned in the whole of 2023. In the months of August and September, an average of 0.3 km2 of forests burned per day. Another significant event occurred at the end of September, when 20 km2 of forest burned again between 17 and 23 September (an average of 2.8 km2/day), the note concludes. From 1 January to 31 May 2024, the total area affected by forest fires was 39 km2, of which almost 12 were woods and forests. Currently 80% of the areas affected by fires, both total and forest, are located in the regions of Sicily and Calabria.
