The year 2025 has become a red-alert year for Italy’s forests, battered by an unprecedented wave of wildfires and the accelerating effects of climate change.
According to a new report by Legambiente, from January through October 15 nearly 94,070 hectares of land have burned — equivalent to about 132,000 football fields, and almost twice as much as in 2024.
Southern Italy remains the most affected area, with Sicily topping the list at 49,064 hectares lost across 606 fires. Calabria follows with 16,521 hectares, then Puglia (8,009), Campania (6,129), and Basilicata (4,594). Lazio and Sardinia have also suffered extensive damage.
The surge in fires goes hand in hand with intensifying climate pressures: prolonged droughts, extreme weather events, and a record-breaking summer that Copernicus ranked as Italy’s fifth hottest since 1950, with a temperature anomaly of +1.62°C.
Environmental groups warn that without urgent mitigation and forest protection strategies, Italy’s green heritage faces irreversible damage.