Franco's forest legacy: is it behind Spain's wildfires?

Franco planted the forest that burns today: the dictatorship's forestry debt

The Franco regime sowed millions of pines and eucalyptus trees across Spain. The aim was to stabilise soils and produce raw material for the timber industry. The problem is that it chose pyrophyte species, fast-growing and highly flammable, and planted them in extensive monocultures. Half a century later, that forestry legacy has become a tinderbox.

Pines and eucalyptus: the perfect fuel

During the decades from 1940 to 1970, the Patrimonio Forestal del Estado (State Forestry Heritage) and later Icona (the National Forestry Institute) carried out a massive reforestation. Maritime pine and eucalyptus were prioritised for their short-term profitability. "The idea was good, but it was implemented very badly", critics conclude. In Galicia, the invasion of eucalyptus transformed the landscape and left impoverished soils. The rest of the peninsula filled up with pine forests that now burn with ease.

The replacement plan that never came

What few remember is that the original plan itself envisaged a second phase: pogre replacing the pines with noble species such as holm oaks and cork oaks. But in the 1980s, with the disappearance of Icona and the transfer of powers to Spain's autonomous regions, that plan evaporated. The regional governments failed to maintain the management or the necessary investment. The result: forests ageing without the planned succession, accumulating biomass and increasing the risk of fires.

The uncomfortable question is whether, now that environmental regulations make it difficult to fell even trees planted by the owner, the problem has only got worse. Some point out that there have never been as many fires as since "ecological management" of woodlands was introduced. Others recall that during the civil war, with bombings and bonfires, not even half as much burned as today.

The reality is that the country is carrying a 70-year forestry debt. Until a national plan for woodland management and species replacement is recovered, fire will keep finding its most abundant fuel in the trees Franco planted.