There was an increase in fires in Cyprus during 2024, however they were fewer than the ones recorded in 2021, according to a report on forest fires published on Wednesday by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

In Cyprus, the damage amounts to 0.36 per cent of protected land in the country, one of the highest shares in the EU, third after Portugal with 1.53 per cent of protected areas and Bulgaria 0.53 per cent.
About 25 per cent of burned areas was mapped on Natura2000 sites.

The report covers fires in Europe, the Middle East and north Africa and used satellite imagery to register its findings.

In 2024, there were 28 fires mapped in Cyprus, covering 3,529 hectares, somewhat increased compared to the previous two years, with about 2,500 hectares in 2022 and almost 2,000 hectares in 2023.

In 2021, more than 6,000 hectares had burned, while the extent of the damage in 2020 was comparable to that of 2024.

According to the data included in the report, since 2010 the damage from fires was around 1,000 hectares, except in 2012, 2013 and 2016, when the extent of burned land reached between 2,000 and 3,000 hectares.

In 2024, over two thirds of the damage occurred in June, including the largest fire of the year which covered over 1,600 hectares in the Paphos district.

A total of 860 hectares was mapped on Natura2000 sites, accounting for a quarter of the total and 0.36 per cent of the total protected land of the country.

Also, 55 per cent of the burned area in 2024 affected agricultural areas, while 39 per cent affected dry vegetation.

The 2024 wildfire season was relatively mild in Europe, the Middle East and north Africa, thanks in part to the intermittent rainfall during the summer, the report said.

It added that serious wildfire episodes occurred early in the wildfire season, in July, with critical wildfires in some of the Greek islands and in Madeira, Portugal. A series of multiple wildfires started ignited in Portugal in September, which resulted in a total burned area over 100,000 hectares in the EU in just a week.

The 2024 wildfire season in the EU saw a total of 419,298 hectares burned, slightly above the average of the period 2006 to 2023. About 35 per cent of this or 147,017 hectares occurred on Natura200 sites. Many wildfires, which caused extensive burned areas, occurred in the Balkan region, inside and outside EU territory.

The year 2024 was also a record-breaking year for forest fires in Ukraine. Satellite imagery shows that 965,000 hectares burned in the country in 2024, more than twice the area burned in the entire EU during the same period.

The spatial distribution of the fires matches the line of the war front between Ukraine and Russia, which has developed after Russia’s invasion in 2022. The effects of the conflict appear to have been worse in 2024 than in previous fire seasons since the war started.