More than 3,400 hectares damaged as record number of wildfires in Ireland last year

The season for wildfires in Ireland is believed to be linked to the practice of illegal agricultural burning, particularly of gorse and heather in upland areas. File Picture: Denis Minihane

More than 3,400 hectares of land were damaged by large wildfires last year as the number of uncontrolled fires in the Republic reached record levels.

New figures show a total of 69 large wildfires — each of which damaged at least 30 hectares of land — were recorded around the country during 2022.

It was the highest number of large individual wildfires in two decades and a significant increase on the 50 blazes documented in 2021, which had also set a new record.

However, there was a slight decrease in the amount of land burnt by wildfires last year.

Official figures show a total of 3,409 hectares were damaged in 2022 — down 5.5% on the previous year.

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The figures are contained in a new report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, which highlighted how last year was the second-worst wildfire season in the EU since 2006.

It shows the level of damage by wildfires across Europe in 2022 was only surpassed in 2017.

The JRC observed the total burnt area mapped in Ireland last year was close to the average of the previous few years.

Unlike other parts of Europe where the risk of wildfires is highest during the hottest summer months, the main peak of wildfire activity in the Republic last year, as is usual, occurred in March and April.

Illegal agricultural burning

The season for wildfires in Ireland is believed to be linked to the practice of illegal agricultural burning, particularly of gorse and heather in upland areas.

The latest figures, which are collated by the Department of Agriculture, show the majority of land impacted by wildfires last year was upland heath, accounting for 92% of affected areas.

Agricultural land represented only 1% of areas burned by wildfires in 2021, with forests accounting for just 0.8%.

The latest figures show the size of area in the EU burnt by wildfires increased by 86% last year to over 881,000 hectares together with a 48% increase in the number of fires to more than 7,850.

Spain was the country worst affected by wildfires in 2022, with almost 316,000 hectares destroyed — more than three and a half times the area affected in 2021 — arising from almost 1,500 fires.

Luxembourg was the only EU member state with no record of any large wildfire last year.

The JRC said it was particularly concerned about the impact of fires on protected natura areas within the Natura 2000 network, which includes habitats which are home to endangered plant and animal species.

The latest figures show more than 365,000 hectares of protected Natura 2000 sites were destroyed last year — about 44% of all burnt areas in the EU.

It was the highest amount of Natura 2000 areas destroyed in the past decade, with the damage largely concentrated in Spain, Romania and Portugal, which accounted for more than three-quarters of all burnt land in protected areas in the EU in 2022.

In Ireland, a total of 31 wildfires were linked to damage caused to 1,352 hectares of protected habitats.