• The LIFE Pyrenees4Clima project presents its first monograph, featuring 16 recommendations to strengthen prevention and response to the consequences of climate change, such as mega-fires and adverse natural phenomena in the Pyrenees.
• Among the recommendations: restoring mosaic landscapes in the most critical areas through the promotion of extensive livestock farming, reforming subsidies for the primary sector, and creating a Pyrenean protocol for forest fire emergencies.
• The 46 entities represented in this European programme, led by the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC), warn that models project an increase in meteorological fire danger, with longer fire seasons and the potential for “fire storms.”
• LIFE Pyrenees4Clima makes its scientific knowledge available to administrations, institutions, and citizens, and invites them to join a collective, cross-border response to the climate emergency.

Toulouse, 12 November 2025.
The Pyrenean massif is going through a critical phase, and it is urgent to identify the risks and act to minimize the impact of extreme hydroclimatic events that are already affecting the territory and the lives of its inhabitants.
This is the warning issued in the technical opinion presented this morning in Toulouse by the LIFE-SIP Pyrenees4Clima project, composed of 46 partner entities and led by the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC).

In the document, the main scientific and administrative entities of Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, and Andorra, all specialized in risk management, issue an urgent call to accelerate climate action in mountain areas facing growing threats. They outline 16 recommendations to strengthen prevention and prepare the territory for mega-fires and adverse natural phenomena.
The list, detailed at the end of the press release, includes measures such as maintaining agro-silvo-pastoral mosaic landscapes to counteract rural abandonment and the lack of generational renewal (diversifying land uses), reactivating extensive agro-livestock practices at the regional level, and reforming subsidies and payments to the primary sector, linking them to the number of livestock or hectares.
It also proposes developing forest emergency, safety, and firefighting protocols against pyroconvection—an extreme meteorological phenomenon that occurs when intense columns of hot air from wildfires or volcanic eruptions create storm clouds.

Putting knowledge and experience at the service of society

The technical report warns that the Pyrenees are warming 30% faster than the global average, with an increase of 1.9 °C since 1960, and that the effects are already visible through the proliferation of mega-fires and extreme droughts.
These climatic factors are exacerbated by rural abandonment, which reduces the territory’s ability to respond.
The recommendations are based on experience from previous projects and on the reflection of the 46 partners in the LIFE-SIP Pyrenees4Clima project, particularly through 33 pilot demonstration cases carried out since 2024.
The report also aims to share scientific knowledge and experience with local stakeholders.

The 23 signatories of the “Opinion on Climate-Related Natural Risks in the Pyrenees” describe the summer of 2025 in the Iberian Peninsula and southeastern France as “devastating,” with two record-breaking heatwaves that triggered fires with unprecedented behavior, making preventive measures urgent.
According to data from the EFFIS/Copernicus European system, fire has burned over one million hectares in the European Union, 400,000 of which in Spain, representing 40% of the European total.
These new so-called sixth-generation wildfires, “autonomous and convective,” are capable of generating their own storms and altering atmospheric conditions. “They are practically impossible to stop,” the report warns. Furthermore, climate models project an increase in meteorological fire danger across the cross-border Pyrenean area, with longer events that can generate fire storms.

Rural abandonment and climate change: two sides of the same coin

In light of this situation, the report calls for a structural transformation of the landscape to reduce risk and strengthen the massif’s resilience.
It proposes restoring agro-silvo-pastoral mosaics, reactivating extensive livestock farming, and adapting forest management.
It also calls for professional recognition of shepherds, foresters, and rural fire brigades, integrating them into prevention strategies.

“Rural abandonment and climate change are two sides of the same problem. Where there used to be management, now there is fuel,” the text reads.

The document also calls for real cross-border coordination in emergencies and high-risk area management, with the creation of a Pyrenean Forest Fire Protocol to unify response efforts between Spain, France, and Andorra, and the development of a shared real-time climate data platform to anticipate heatwaves, droughts, and extreme events.
It likewise proposes adapting monitoring and firefighting calendars to new risk seasons and promoting Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to restore degraded soils and reduce runoff and erosion after fires.
The authors stress that these measures are not theoretical—they are immediate, viable, and necessary.

Low social perception of risk

The report emphasizes that climate change cannot be addressed in isolation.
The abandonment of traditional agro-pastoral activities, combined with the lack of forest management, has created continuous vegetation that increases fire risk and amplifies its negative effects.
This is compounded by a low social perception of risk: between 80% and 95% of fires in the Pyrenean and pre-Pyrenean regions are of human origin, mostly caused by unauthorized agricultural burns, land-use conflicts, or negligence.
The scientific, academic, and institutional community calls for strengthening environmental education, technical training, and the creation of local and forest volunteer networks.

The LIFE-SIP Pyrenees4Clima project, co-financed by the European Union, implements the Pyrenean Climate Change Strategy (EPiCC), adopted by Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, and Andorra.
It maintains that only multilevel governance, capable of connecting science, territory, and citizens, can ensure the safety and habitability of mountain regions.

“The climate emergency knows no borders. Only through cross-border cooperation, active local governance, and stable funding can we ensure a livable future in the Pyrenees,” the document concludes, quoting Marie Curie:
“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

The 16 specific recommendations of the Opinion on Climate-Related Natural Risks in the Pyrenees

• Prioritize mosaic landscape structures.
• Reactivate and secure extensive agro-livestock use at the regional scale.
• Promote changes in the allocation of subsidies and payments to the primary sector, both from the CAP and national or regional resources.
• Implement a “Pyrenean Forest Fire Emergency Protocol”, ensuring interoperability of meteorological data, mapping, and crisis communication.
• Develop specific cross-border and inter-administrative safety and firefighting protocols for pyroconvection.
• Prioritize training for professionals and volunteers at local and inter-municipal levels.
• Maintain a Pyrenean early warning system with high-resolution, locally validated data.
• Adapt monitoring and firefighting calendars to new risk seasons.
• Establish integrated forest management plans at the landscape scale, with common transboundary criteria and active participation of landowners and local actors.
• Create municipal multi-hazard self-protection plans.
• Promote the use of extensive livestock to maintain fire protection infrastructure.
• Launch pilot projects with communal or mixed herds.
• Apply Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and strengthen the protective role of new plantations.
• Implement official training and permanent environmental education programs.
• Establish multilevel governance at local, regional, and Pyrenean scales.
• Create a learning system based on post-event experience sharing.

About the LIFE Pyrenees4Clima project

The LIFE-SIP Pyrenees4Clima project, coordinated by the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC-CTP), brings together 46 scientific, technical, and administrative entities from the three Pyrenean countries.
Its mission: to strengthen the resilience of the Pyrenean massif to climate change through cooperation, knowledge, and joint action. More information here.
 

Authors of the opinion

Arias, Ander - NEIKER; Alberto Bernués - CITA; Canals, Rosa Mª - UPNA; Chauvin, Sebastian - FORESPIR; Douette, Michaël - CBNPMP; Fábregas, Santiago - AECT Pirineos-Pyrénées; Felts, Didier - CEREMA; Fichot, Sarah - ACAP; García-Balaguer, Eva - OPCC-CTP; Esther Guiza - OPCC CTP, Maitia, Joël - ADP; Nadal, Estela - IPE-CSIC; Papuchon, Julianne ACAP; Pascual, Diana CREAF; Pla, Eduard - CREAF; Sanz, Mª José BC3; Soubeyroux, Jean-Michel - METEO-France; Terrádez, Juan OPCC-CTP; Trapero, Laura-Andorra Recerca + Innovació; Travesset Baro, Oriol -UPC; Valero-Garcés, Blas - IPE-CSIC; Vicente, Sergio - IPE-CSIC; SEO Birdlife

See the full opinion document here.