Environment

Balearic firefighting budget up in 2015

More is spent on putting fires out than on prevention.

Image from a fire in Son Anglada, Establiments, last month. | R.S.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma20/08/2015 00:00

Regional administrations in Spain will this year spend a similar total amount - some 700 million euros - to that of 2014 on forest fires, though the precise figure is hard to arrive at owing to the complexity in doing so and also to being able to distinguish between funds spent on extinction or prevention. The regional authorities say that different models exist which make budget comparisons difficult, while the amount of actual forest land differs greatly between regions. Andalusia, for example, has over four million hectares, while the Balearic Islands between them have just 223,000.

In general, more is spent on putting fires out than on prevention, though there are exceptions. In Aragon, 15.4 million euros are dedicated this year to prevention, while nine million are budgeted for extinction. In the Balearics, the ratio is as is more common with the greater part of the budget going towards extinction. In 2015 this is expected to be 7.8 million euros, with 2.2 million having been spent on prevention. Both amounts are up on 2014, when they were 7.6 million and 1.35 million respectively.