AGI – During 2023 Italy was hit by forest fires for a total surface area of 1073 km2 (almost a third of the Aosta Valley). Of these, approximately 157 km2 (an area comparable to the extension of Lake Como) was composed of terrestrial forest ecosystems. 63% was represented by evergreen broad-leaved trees such as holm oaks and Mediterranean scrub; 17% of coniferous forests and 15% of deciduous broad-leaved forests, predominantly mixed oak forests.
The fires that occurred in Italy in 2023 were significant both for the overall extension of the affected areas (second only to 2021 in the last six years) and because they systematically hit only some provinces. The numbers increased compared to 2022 especially for the total burned surfaces (+36%), and to a lesser extent for the forest surfaces alone (burned +6%). This is what emerges from the Ispra activities in the context of observations and monitoring of the impacts of medium and large-scale fires on ecosystems.
The aim – explains a note – is to provide detailed information every year to support policies for the restoration and conservation of terrestrial ecosystems at a national and local scale. The data relating to the fires are provided by the European Forest Fires Information System of the European Copernicus Emergency programme, and processed by Ispra with artificial intelligence applications for the recognition of the ecosystems involved in the fires.
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 km2 of forest area affected by fire, contributed to 64% of the total national forest area burned in 2023. In 2023, only 15 regions out of 20 were affected by large forest fires. The regions that do not have areas affected by fire are Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Umbria.
Comparing the data with the previous year, the surface covered by fires decreases in 2023 in the Northern, Central-Northern and Central regions, while it increases in the Southern regions and in Sicily and Sardinia. The province that suffered the most from the fires was that of Palermo with 43.5 km2, which alone represents 43% of the total regional forest burned and 28% of the total national forest burned by fire this year.
Also in the provinces of Messina and Syracuse, 23 and 10 km2 of forested area burned respectively. In Calabria, in the province of Reggio alone, forest areas of 20 km2 were affected by fire. 43% of the forest ecosystems affected by fire in 2023 are located within protected areas, mainly belonging to Natura 2000 Network sites.
In the space of just four days, those between Between July 24 and 28, 2023, approximately 80 km2 of forest area burned (an average of 20 km2/day), almost half of what was burned in the whole of 2023. In the months of August and September, an average of 0.3 km2 of forest 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).
From 1 January to 31 May 2024, a total area affected by forest fires was 39 km2, of which almost 12 belonged to woods and forests. Currently 80% of the areas affected by both total and forest fires are located in the Sicily and Calabria regions.
