Cutting trees to stop wildfires in Spain: good deed or crime?

Cutting trees to create a spontaneous firebreak can cost you a fine of thousands of euros. Spain's forestry law makes no distinction between an arsonist and a neighbour trying to protect their home

The image is almost epic: neighbours armed with chainsaws cutting a gap in the woodland to hold back the flames while firefighting services are still on their way. But what many see as common sense, the law treats as a crime against forest property. The paradox is not new, but it resurfaces every summer: the authorities require permits for any use of woodland, even picking up a pine cone, while the fire advances.

The fine print of the forestry law
Forestry regulations, both state and regional, require the owner's authorisation — in the case of public woodland, the administration's — for any intervention. In regions such as Madrid, picking pine cones for non-profit purposes is allowed through a simple self-declaration, but always provided the forest officer is not having a bad day. Cutting down trees is another matter entirely: it can lead to financial and even incivil penalties. The difference between a legal firebreak and a spontaneous one is just a stamped piece of paper.

The problem of catching the offender
The recurring question is: how do they catch you? In a remote woodland, with no witnesses or cameras, dodging the fine seems easy. But neighbours talk. Rural communities police themselves, and what starts as an act of solidarity can end in an anonymous report. What's more, the tools used — chainsaws, axes — leave traces: cut marks, tyre tracks. It is not as simple as it seems.

The ironies of bureaucracy
While some face fines for saving their homes, others point out the absurdity: the same administration that bans cutting down a tree then fails to protect the woodland from fire. Some recall that a wheelchair user is forbidden from going into the countryside in case the sun's reflection on the wheels starts a fire. Sometimes the law seems written for another planet.

The conclusion is uncomfortable: until the bureaucracy catches up, citizens who act on their own risk a sanction. And the fire, meanwhile, does not wait.