In 2025, the cumulative burnt area in the EU exceeded one million hectares, the largest ever recorded, and the Union Civil Protection Mechanism was activated more frequently than in any previous year. In light of this, the European Commission published on 25 March 2026 a Communication on Integrated Wildfire Risk Management, setting out the EU's strategic approach to an accelerating threat.
The Communication adopts the integrated approach: covering the full disaster risk management cycle from prevention, preparedness, response, to recovery. It recognises that wildfires are a systemic EU risk requiring coordinated action across policy areas, governance levels and stakeholder groups, while affirming that responsibility for implementation lies primarily with Member States and local land and forest owners and managers.
On prevention and landscape management, the Communication explicitly recognises active and sustainable forest management as a cornerstone of wildfire resilience. The Commission commits to gathering and disseminating best practices on sustainable vegetation fuel management, and to presenting by 2027 effective practices demonstrated through EU-funded research projects.
Furthermore, the Communication confirms that the Common Agricultural Policy should remain the primary EU funding vehicle for land-based wildfire prevention in the next programming period (2028 - 2034), covering investments in active and sustainable forest management, including thinning, pruning, species diversification, firebreaks, and forest road infrastructure. The EU Bioeconomy Strategy is also referenced as a tool to mobilise under-utilised biomass in fire-prone regions and strengthen rural value chains. Alongside the Communication, the Commission simultaneously published its long-awaited guidance on Natura 2000 and climate change, which aims to promote fuel reduction measures compatible with conservation objectives. A Council Recommendation on integrated wildfire risk management is also announced.
CEPF welcomes the Communication as a broadly positive step. Several of its core positions, developed through its contribution to the Commissioners' High level roundtable in January 2026, and its position paper: Managed forests, lower wildfire risks - Turning proven knowledge into operational practices of February 2026, are clearly reflected in the final text. The Commission explicitly recognises active Sustainable Forest Management as critical resilience infrastructure, acknowledges that wildfire risk builds up long before ignition through fuel accumulation and land abandonment, and confirms that farmers and forest owners are key actors in prevention whose role must be recognised and rewarded.
However, CEPF notes significant gaps. The Commission does not reflect on possibel revision the policy frameworks that might actively hamper active forest management on the ground, such as EU nature protection legilsations or the LULUCF Regulation. The announced Natura 2000 guidance is a limited step that does not address the underlying legislative constraints.
CEPF will engage actively in the development of the Council Recommendation and in the upcoming MFF 2028,2034 negotiations, to ensure that European forest owners' role as the frontline of wildfire prevention is properly recognised and supported.
Read CEPF's position paper on integrated wildfire risk management [here].
