Albania has for years identified the increasing risk of fires due to climate change, but experts raise questions about the measures for their prevention and management, as well as the weaknesses of institutional cooperation.
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At the beginning of September, the coastal town of Himara was surrounded by flames that were burning olive trees on the hills of the Potam area.
Tourists and residents were urgently evacuated as smoke engulfed the town.
A preliminary assessment from local authorities reports dozens of centuries-old olive trees burned and several houses completely reduced to ashes.
Other fire outbreaks appeared at the beginning of this month in several areas of the country, mainly in pastures and forests, while official figures speak of thousands of hectares of land affected by fires during the summer.
In the months of July-August alone, the State Authority for Geospatial Information (ASIG) has recorded 5,210.4 hectares of land affected by fires across the country.
According to data provided to BIRN, the largest area was recorded in Shkodër county with 2,416 hectares, followed by Lezha with 1,278 hectares, Dibra with 642.4 hectares, and Tirana with 631 hectares.
In the Durrës, Fier, and Elbasan counties, 105, 97, and 41 hectares were recorded respectively.
However, this area does not represent the final toll of fires nationwide.
ASIG clarifies that this figure refers only to 14 areas measured at the request of the National Civil Protection Agency, while the measurement process continues for other areas that have been affected by fires.
In an independent measurement using a similar methodology, geospatial expert at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Flavio Vata, detected over 6,200 hectares of burned land by August 18.
The difference does not necessarily mean that one measurement is wrong, as results may vary depending on satellite images, the period analyzed, the minimum fire area, and the land categories included in the calculation.
But what is important, according to Vata, is that the figures are treated by institutions “as a serious signal about how we manage forests and the territory.”
Environmental expert Ornela Çuçi also warns that the scale of the fires should not be read only through a single number, but as a recurring risk that requires measures for their prevention.
“The alarm signal is not just the number 5,200. It’s the fact that we have a recurring risk, with high variability and potential for extreme seasons,” Çuçi said.
For environmental expert Mihallaq Qirjo, observation of the occurrence and spread rate of the fires shows that they intensified in the second half of August.
“Soil drought has increased and its temperature has risen, meaning favorable conditions for fire ignition and spread, and despite the worsening situation, there are new arsons,” Qirjo noted.
Unprepared for climate change
The Albanian government has identified the increasing fire risk as an expected consequence of climate change in several official documents.
In the National Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction 2023–2030, it is highlighted that climate models predict higher temperatures, longer dry periods, and less rainfall, especially during summer, increasing the frequency and severity of fires and extending their season.
In other documents on climate change and national adaptation plans, measures have been foreseen related to prevention, monitoring, early warning, strengthening institutional capacities, and risk management.
Experts also assess that climate change is an important factor in the ignition of fires or in their high spread even when they are started by humans.
However, they consider that institutions have failed to take measures for prevention and management of the situation.
Based on his expert analyses, Vata says that rising temperatures, drought, and moisture deficit are creating more favorable conditions for extreme fires.
“We are entering a period where extreme anomalies may become increasingly important for risk management,” he says.
He questions the country’s ability to use the capacities it has available, such as satellite technologies and access to European systems Copernicus/EFFIS, to integrate a single operational system that links prevention, monitoring, early warning, response, and post-fire rehabilitation.
In this sense, Vata adds, “I think the objective should not be simply to know how many hectares have burned after the season is over, but to know as soon as possible where a fire is starting, how fast it is spreading, what it is affecting, who is exposed, and where intervention is needed.”
He points out that the main weaknesses relate to the need for a more integrated approach to fires: risk prevention through identification of high-risk areas and vegetation management, real-time monitoring through integration of optical and thermal satellite data, establishment of early warning systems, and linking satellite information with decision-making and field intervention structures.
Ornela Çuçi places the same problem on the level of institutional functioning.
Albania, according to her, does not lack institutions, but the connection between them as a single risk management system.
“If our institutions meet for the first time at the flame, then they have met too late,” Çuçi says.
She argues that the management of a forest fire should not start with the mobilization of firefighters, municipalities, Civil Protection, or Armed Forces after the fire appears, but begins with the identification of high-risk areas, vegetation condition, potential combustible material, access routes, and preventive measures.
According to her, the National Forest Agency and local government forest structures should intervene before the emergency, while satellite information and civil protection structures should be linked with decision-making and field intervention.
“The problem is that the institutions we have still do not function sufficiently as a single risk management system,” she adds.
On the other hand, Mihallaq Qirjo speaks of the need for concrete measures on the ground, from creating protective infrastructure and prepositioning equipment near risk areas, to involving communities in prevention and management of burned surfaces.
“Community awareness, specifically of rural populations living near forests, is weak, disorganized, and poor in quality. Forest fire protection infrastructure needs improvement, protective equipment should be stationed in forests, and water reservoirs should be created in forests,” he says.
Qirjo also points out the lack of a technical document for the treatment of burned forest surfaces, which according to him should be based on the revitalization of nature itself in the first years and then the process aided with interventions that mimic nature. / BIRN
