There is an old saying in the forestry world that "the forest that has value does not burn". The current wave of fires in Spain, which has devastated more than 400,000 hectares in 2025, has its origin in multiple factors. On the one hand, the human factor, since 96% of fires are caused by human activity, often due to negligence or accident. On the other hand, extreme weather conditions, such as heat waves, prolonged drought and strong winds, unfortunately created the perfect scenario for uncontrolled spread.

2025 has become the worst year in two decades, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). This does not mean that more fires are occurring, but rather that those that are occurring are larger, faster and more virulent. Experts call them sixth-generation fires: fires so massive that they exceed traditional firefighting capabilities and sometimes create their own weather conditions (pyrocumulus).

However, it was not just the heat. There was another key ingredient, the forest, a factor where prevention is the most powerful tool . Reducing the risk of these mega-fires involves active forest management , which includes clearing the undergrowth, thinning trees and creating gaps to slow down the fire. And for this management to be possible, it is vital to educate society. We must understand that letting a forest grow uncontrolled is not protecting it, but abandoning it, causing it to become a mass of fuel that facilitates its disappearance.

Between 2009 and 2022, the weight of prevention in the firefighting budget plummeted from 47% to 30%. It is necessary to broaden the perspective, and to understand how prevention is also the forest management that maintains the health of the forest. This management is not a simple expense, but an investment that generates wealth in our natural heritage, creating a sustainable and long-term value for the territory and its communities.

Intelligent and sustainable forest management does not imply indiscriminate logging, but rather a care manager that benefits everyone. The benefits are clear: less risk of fires, greater protection of forests and their biodiversity, and generation of wealth by creating green jobs in the rural world, thus combating depopulation.

A wealth that comes from a circular Economics based on forest resources. We are talking about the use of wood for construction, furniture and renewable energy (forest biomass), as well as non-wood products such as resins, cork, mushrooms, honey or forest fruits. Despite being the second country in the EU with the largest forest area, Spain has a great untapped potential, importing a large part of the wood it consumes, a real contradiction in terms. Investment in this sector is essential for rural prosperity.

From the Chair Madera Onesta of the University of Navarra, we are working on the Prismaproject with the goal of promoting short-circuit forest value chains and circular bioeconomy. This focuses on multifunctional forest management adapted to climate change. As part of this project, the Summer Course 'The value of forests in the 21st century' will be held in Pamplona on the 8th and 9th. In the last written request, sustainable forest management is the core topic to guarantee that our forests and the communities that live from them will endure. Protecting the environmental, social and economic sustainability of these spaces, making a manager use of their resources, is to invest in our future. Because a forest is not just an ecosystem, it is a community, and its prosperity depends on us.