During 2023, Italy was hit by forest fires for a total area of 1,073 square kilometers, less than only 2021 in the last six years. The numbers are up compared to 2022 especially for the total burned areas (+36%), and to a lesser extent for the burned forest areas alone (+6%). Last year, Sicily and Calabria alone contributed to more than 83% of the total Italian forest area affected by large forest fires. And Palermo is the province in Italy that was most affected by them with 43.5 square kilometers: alone it represents 43% of the total regional forest area burned and a good 28% of the total national forest area affected by fire.
The sad record emerges from the activities of the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) which processes the data relating to fires provided by the European forest fires information system of the Copernicus Emergency programme, with artificial intelligence applications for the recognition of ecosystems involved in the fires. Sicily alone, with a total of 101 square kilometers of forest area affected by fire, contributed to 64% of the total burned in 2023.
Of the 1,073 square kilometers burned in total, about 157 (an area as large as Lake Como) were composed of terrestrial forest ecosystems, 63% of evergreen broadleaf trees such as holm oaks and Mediterranean scrub, 17% of coniferous forests and 15% of deciduous broadleaf forests, mostly mixed oak forests. In 2023, only 15 out of 20 regions were affected by large forest fires. Those 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 area affected by fire decreased in 2023 in the Northern, Central-Northern and Central regions, while it increased in the Southern regions and in Sicily and Sardinia.
As mentioned, the province that suffered the most from the fires is Palermo, but also in the provinces of Messina and Syracuse, 23 and 10 square kilometers of forested area burned respectively. In Calabria, in the province of Reggio alone, forest areas of 20 square kilometers were affected by fire. Furthermore, 43% of the forest ecosystems affected by fire in 2023 are located in protected areas belonging mainly to Natura 2000 Network sites.
In the space of just 4 days, between 24 and 28 July 2023, approximately 80 square kilometers of forest area burned (on average 20 square kilometers per day), almost half of what was burned in the whole of 2023. In the months of August and September burned on average 0.3 square kilometers of forest per day. Another significant event occurred at the end of September, when, between the 17th and 23rd, 20 square kilometers of forest burned again (on average 2.8 square kilometers per day).
As for this year, from January 1st to May 31st, the total area affected by forest fires was 39 square kilometers, almost 12 belonging to woods and forests. Currently, 80% of the areas affected by fires, both total and forestry, are located in Sicily and Calabria.
